The Way Things Are Supposed To Be
by PopItLikeAPopTart
Summary: It all starts when Fang leaves the flock to destroy Itex on his own, bringing the romance we all know exists to an abrupt end. 9 years later, Max just isn't the same, even though the danger is supposed to be over. Suddenly, it all just come back again.
1. The beginning

**Ok people! This is my first Fanfic so I'm sorry if it sucks, I'm still working on my writing skills. This is rated T for some swearing, but nothing really bad. If my story starts sounding like someone else's fic, (again… (Sorry Wally-Go-West!!)) review and tell me so!!! I'm truly sorry if this happens, I will do my best to revise it. Oh and I wasn't creative enough to think of a better title! Sorry!! **

Claimer: Me own me plot! Mine!

Disclaimer: Me no own Maximum ride! No sue!

Chap 1: The beginning

I woke up to a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Cracking open my eye I noticed that Fang, who was supposed to be keeping watch, was no longer anywhere within my sight. He was probably lurking right behind me. But the hairs on my neck weren't sticking up, there's a first.

We had just left my Mom's house, and we were spending the night in a shallow cave. The sun wasn't up yet, so I was guessing it was around 4:00 in the morning.

My eyes widely opened now, and I did a 360, searching silently for him. I looked in every corner, seeing each individual flock member, all asleep, some twitching slightly. Everyone but Fang, that is.

I gazed out into the sky, and I could swear I saw a tiny dot in the horizon, a tiny black speck. But on closer inspection it looked like it was a bird, the normal kind, with dark wings. Not the person I had thought it was.

That was when I remembered I had a dream about Fang. I think I was in this cave and he was bent over me whispering, "_Goodbye guys, I'm so, so sorry. "_ He then jumped off the canyon's ledge and flew away, looking back only once, and I could have sworn it looked like he was crying. He turned his head back forwards and continued on his way. Now that I think about it, the dream felt so… real.

But . . . Fang crying? Yeah right! That can't possibly be real!

"Fang?" I called softly, trying not to wake the others. I walked over to the mouth of the cave were he had been before the flock and myself fell asleep.

Looking over the edge of the cave/ledge I saw a steep sheer drop right under me. **Note to self: don't look over steep canyon ledges, especially ones with pointy rocks at the bottom.** Taking a look farther to my right, something yellow under a small rock caught my eye. As I walked closer to it, I realized it was a note, addressed to me.

_**Max,**_

_**Look at the blog.**_

_**-Fang**_

Ok… what was that boy up to. I wasn't in the mood for surprises at 4:00-5:00 in the morning. (How the hell should I know! Fang was the only one with a watch!) Actually I don't really like surprises period. I was starting to get really worried. Fang knows that I hate surprises, and would know I would kill him if he tried to. Fang wouldn't have the guts to leave a me a supprise.

My gaze flew back into the sky, searching for the little black dot again, but it had disappeared from my sight, my super incredible sight. Could that have been… naaah. Fang couldn't fly that fast, as amazing as he was, it's impossible to fly THAT fast.

So I did what it said. I found Fangs laptop sitting by Iggy's head. I went over to the mouth of the cave, and sat on a rock. I opened up his blog, and took a look at the latest post.

_**Hey guys, I've got some good and bad news.**_

_**This night I was reading up on Itex information. Thanks to Nudge's amazing ability, I was able to hack into a secret Itex plan. You know the by-half one. Well it turns out there is a major flaw with it. I don't really have enough time to tell you guys, 'cuz that would take all day. Well one of the idiot white coats so stupidly posted the plan on the internet. You'd think that scientists that can make us somewhat successfully could just summon up enough brain power to have COMMON SENCE. Seriously people, it's a very important skill in life, use it.**_

_**I found out that Itex in Australia is one of the biggest plants in the world. It so happens that it's one of the most vulnerable as well. So I'm going in. I'm gonna stop this By-half thing, and "save the world." Alone. I'm leaving my flock. They deserve to have a normal life, one were they can settle down and just live. I can't risk Max and the rest of the flock getting hurt. Better me then any of them. It's just something I gotta do. **_

_**Please people, If something goes wrong with my plan, keep fighting. Start a Riot. Try to get the attention of adults all over the world. That's all we need, and all I'm asking for. **_

_**Most likely, this will be the last time you will ever hear from me. The last time this blog will be used; unless Max decides to keep it going. So here it is; Uncle Fang's parting words.**_

_**Don't get caught up in industry. I know X-box and all that other stuff is cool, but seriously, watch out. If nobody figured out Itex's true power, the earth probably would have ended up destroyed somehow. Or worse, we would all be murdered by erasers. Power does things to a person. People get insane for money, and don't think about other people anymore. It's a poison, and if they don't control it, it'll slowly take over a person until they go mad. It's your job to make sure no one gets that far. It's exactly what Itex was planning before we came. Who says they can't do this again?**_

_**Watch you, and your friends, back. Keep fighting till it's all over.**_

_**-Fang**_

**PS. Max, Read the back**

I felt a huge lump in my throat. _Max, hold it in, be strong. Hold it in, be strong._ I chanted over and over in my head.

_This cant be happening, Fang wouldn't do this. He couldn't do this. Why would he? I mean that just doesn't sound like… God, it sounds just like him! How could he… I just… Ugh, I can't think! _

_This isn't happening! It's all a dream! That's it! Just a dream! Only a dream. Only a dream. Only a dream. _I chanted in my head.

_I will prove it! They always say that when you pinch yourself in a dream, it isn't supposed to hurt. Or maybe it was so you will wake yourself up… either way… _I raised my right hand, and pinched my left arm. I was extremely tense, so I ended up pinching a wee bit too hard.

Actually, I drew blood.

_Shit, that didn't work. Fang is gone. I'm stuck in a dream I can't get out of. And now my arm hurts. You're a bloody genius Max._

_Maybe this is some sick joke. Fang loves taunting me, he just took a step too far… Yes, that'll be it. I searched around the post to find any clues he may have left me. _(I was groggy, and I guess I felt like being all logically! Ok!?!)

Of course I felt like a total idiot when I saw the whole 'Max read the back' part. I guess it just slipped from my mind. _Oh, God. That's a statement of an 80 year old. _

I searched for the meaning 'Max read the back'._ What could possibly be the meaning of that… oh. Duuuur. _I realized I was still holding Fang's note, clasped tightly in my hand. I turned the note over, and saw writing on the back.

_**Max, I know you must be feeling really betrayed, but let me explain. I don't value my life as much as the rest of the flock. And that includes you Max, especially you. I would do anything to protect you and the kids. If that means me dieing in their place, then I'm cool with that.**_

_**There has been something that I should have told you a long time ago. I love you, more then a brother-sister type of love. Like a best friend love. Like you're the one true girl out there for me. I'm sorry I've been such a idiot and haven't had the guts to step up and tell you. **_

'_**Cuz chances are, Max, We may never see each other again, I may not come back this time. **_

_**I don't know if you ever felt the same about me, but regardless, I want you to remember me. But move on with your life, fall in love Max. Be happy. Do whatever makes you happy, as long as the Flock stays together. Settle down together; get a place you can call home. **_

_**Grow old with someone you love. **_

_**I wish that it could'a been me, Max. God, do I wish it was me. **_

_**Say goodbye to Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Total for me. Tell them I love them, and that this was something I needed to do.**_

_**Please Max, forgive me, I don't want us to end with you being mad at me. Please just find it in yourself to just leave the memory of me a good one. **_

_**Goodbye my Maximum, I love you.**_

_**-Fang**_

At the end of the note I totally broke down, a single tear fell down my cheek. It finally soaked in, this wasn't a dream. What changed my mind?

Fang told me he loved me. In all of my dreams I always got shot down by Fang. He always said he didn't love me, then left me. This was the first time Fang had said "I love you." This was reality. Totally true, and harsh reality.

He finally said he love me, just as he was leaving. Why didn't he just tell me earlier?

I loved him too.

Why didn't I say something?

Things could have been different.

Things could have been the way they should have been a long time ago, both of us together. He was my one true shelter, the arms that kept me together, how would I live without him?

I felt someone's gaze on me. But that didn't matter. It could be erasers for all I cared. Physical pain would be taken in with open arms.

"Max?" I heard a shy young voice come from the corner of the cave. It was Gazzy. "Max? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Gazzy asked.

In a shaky voice I desperately tried to tell him calmly what Fang had done. When I finished, Gazzy looked heartbroken, and he was trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over. He was only a little kid after all, he just tried to act tough, but everyone has their limitations. We both woke up the rest of the flock, and told them the news. The night was filled with sobs, sorrow, and pain.

That day was the worst of my life, a terrible, totally real nightmare. Only this time the strong arms of Fang were not there to comfort me when I woke up, and they would never be back.

They were gone, ripped from my life.

I couldn't live without Fang, again. I would fall apart, slowly and painfully.

The clouds covered the skies, and a storm began in my own little world. The only thing that could make my world brighter was the sun. But the sun was gone. And it would never be back.

God Fang. Why?

**Tell me what you all think. I know Max was OOC, but who cares. Me author. Me do what ME want. **

**Oh yeah, you all know about the whole black speck thing? Yeah, that was Fang. And the whole 'dream' was real, just to make myself clear. Oh, you people should know, I suck at spelling, if you haven't already figured that out. So try to excuse all of the spelling and grammar mistakes.**


	2. In the Stars

**Yeah, yeah, I know, me doing a songfic. Get over it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and will probably not happen again for a loooooong time. The song is ****Hey There Delilah**** by the Plain White T's. I normally don't like sonfics. For all of you who don't like them period, suck it up. I think this song is perfect for the scene. And just FYI the flock and Fang are still close enough to each other to be in the same time zone. That'll be all.**

Chapter 2: In the stars

Max POV

It has been a mere day since he left. It felt like months sense I had seen his face, and the way his bangs went in front of his dark eyes, making them appear hooded… and, _oh my god, Max, listen to yourself!_

I couldn't bring myself to say his name, it was just too hard. More or less, I had become emotionless around the flock, not saying more then was necessary to anybody. I mostly just tried to stay away from everyone. I was all alone.

My feelings were reserved for him, and with him gone, I no longer had anyone to confide in. I was sealed off; I only remained together because I reminded myself I needed to be tough for the flock. I was their last lifeline, their last hope, I couldn't take that away from them. The night Fang the flock and I searched for over 7 hours. We finially gave up, and decided to find somewhere to think, and come up with a plan.

We had checked out two rooms in a motel. Me and Iggy in one, the rest of the flock in another. Checking the clock, I saw it was 10:30 at night. I sat down on the bed and relaxed. Ok, fine, I tried to at least. I took in my surroundings looking for escape routes and mapping the room in my head, I noticed our room had a radio in the corner. I got up and turned it on, hoping it would cheer me up a little. Then a song came on, that made me want to cry yet again. I stared outside the room's only window, seeing a bright full moon, and listened, fighting back tears.

_**Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City?**_

_**I'm a thousand miles away, **_

_**But girl tonight you look so pretty.**_

_**Yes, you do**_

_**Times Square can't shine as bright as you.**_

_**I swear it's true**_

Fang's POV

I missed Max so much. It had been a day sense I had seen her, but it felt like forever ago. But I needed to do this. I needed to take down Itex. I would do it for the flock. For max, the one girl on this planet meant for me. God, I missed her.

_I'm so tired_. Checking my watch, I saw it was 10:30 pm. _I haven't slept for 2 days, it wouldn't hurt to stop. But only for two hours._

I descended landing into a small city, probably somewhere in eastern US. I was looking for someplace to eat, and take a rest. I stopped by a tall tree, thick in leaves so I wouldn't be spotted. Good place to sleep.

I heard in the silent night air, music beginning to play. I was guessing that it came from a radio, but where the source was, I couldn't tell you. Listening to the song I was instantly reminded of Max. Gazing at the bright full moon, partially hidden by a few leaves, I listened to the song play.

_**Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City?**_

_**I'm a thousand miles away, **_

_**But girl tonight you look so pretty.**_

_**Yes, you do**_

_**Times Square can't shine as bright as you.**_

**I swear it's true.**

Max's POV

_**Hey there Delilah**_

_**Don't you worry about the distance**_

_**I'm right there if you get lonely**_

_**Give this song another listen**_

_**Close your eyes**_

_**Listen to my voice that's my disguise**_

_**I'm by your side**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**What'd you do to me?**_

God Fang, Why? Why did you do this to me? I need you. I can't make it on my own. You're my comfort, my best friend, my right hand man. Why? If I did something wrong I'm sorry. I'm prepared to suck up my pride and beg you to come back. I can't live being separated again. I know you are doing this for us, but I need you. I value you more then my life. Please Fang come back to me. **(A/N Ya I know Max is a little OOC (out of character) but I wanted to show you that Max has a weak side. Fang is Max's one true and sole weakness.)**

Fang's POV

_**Hey there Delilah **_

_**I know times are getting hard**_

Max I'm sorry I left, I needed to. I love you and the flock too much to risk them getting hurt. I prayed silently to the night sky, hoping somehow she could hear me. The hard times are almost over, you've fought hard, and I just need to do this on my own. Somehow I felt like something kind of cliché was happening right now.

_**But just believe me girl**_

_**Someday I'll pay the bill **_

_**With this gaiter**_

_**Well have it good**_

_**We'll have the life we knew we would**_

_**My word is good**_

Yeah like a house, and a big yard were the flock could play, and we can just live. We could live without the constant fear of erasers attacking us. Max and I getting married, and maybe having kids… _Whoa, Fang, were did that come from? God, I am so losing it…_

Max's POV

_**Hey there Delilah**_

_**I've got so much left to say**_

_**If every simple song I wrote to you**_

_**Would take your breath away**_

_**I'd write it all**_

Too bad I'm not much of a singer though… even though nudge keeps on trying to convince me that I can sing well. I know she is just trying to not kill my 'self confidence.' But if I could sing, I would, just for Fang. No one else. But I swear if he made fun of me, I would kill him.

_**Even more in love with me you'd fall **_

_**We'd have it all**_

Maybe like a house, and a big yard for the kids to play in. I don't want to grow old with just anyone; I want it to be with the flock and Fang.

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**What'd you do to me?**_

Fang you were the one person who actually made me talk. To admit I was scared, or upset. He didn't even have to ask what was wrong. We were so close that we would practically know each others thoughts. I knew how to trace the smallest bit of emotion in Fang, and I would know how he felt. He could do the same with me.

Fang's POV

_**A thousand miles seems pretty far,**_

Uh, yeah it is far, far away from my Max. I hope she was ok. I can't be farther then 100 miles away from her, yet I still can't bear it

_**But they've got planes and trains and cars**_

_**I'd walk to you if I had no other way**_

Don't forget good old flying

_**Our friends would all make fun of us**_

_**And we'll just laugh along because **_

_**We know that none of them have felt this way**_

Well I only have really known 5 people in my whole life so, that really isn't that surprising, but still. Me and Max had some incredible bond. It would never be broken, never.

Max's POV

_**Delilah I can promise you that by the time we get through**_

_**The world will never ever be the same**_

_**And you're to blame**_

Yeah I'm pretty sure saving the world is a pretty global kind of change. _Wow I'm crying and yet I still have room for sarcasm. What is wrong with me?_

_Hey there Delilah you be good _

_And don't you miss me?_

More then you know Fang, I miss you so, so much.

_**Two more years and you'll be done with school**_

_**And ill be making history like I do**_

_**You know its all because of you?**_

_**We can do whatever we want to**_

_**Hey there Delilah **_

_**Here's to you**_

_**These ones for you**_

Throughout the whole song I never realized I was staring at the moon. The whole time. I brushed my cheek trying to get rid of the tears, and remove all evidence that I was crying. I switched my gaze to the brightest star in the sky, and as if I expected Fang to hear me I said in a whisper. "Fang wherever you are, I want you to know I love you too. If only you knew how much I love you, then maybe, you'd come back. Its like I'm trying to fly with one wing without you." No wait that was too easy "And the other is on fire. Fang we need you, the flock needs you, I need you. Do what you have to do, but please just come back safely. Just please promise me that."

Fang's POV

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**Oh it's what you do to me**_

_**What'd you do to me?**_

Still starring at the moon, listening to the last part of the song. _At least we could still look up at the same moon, in the same sky…_ I suddenly noticed I was spacing, and I averted my eyes to the brightest star in the sky.

"Max, wherever you are, I need to do this. Please listen to what I told you. I love you and the flock more then anything in my short and crappy life. I have to risk what I can give to keep you guys safe. God I wish I could have grown old with you. I wish it really was me."

_Wait!? What was I doing! Sitting here! As I speak Itex could be dishing out some horrible new plan to destroy the earth, or worse, destroy the flock. I needed to move, to protect the people I loved. To protect Max. Itex was freaking going down!_ "This is for you Max. This was all for you and the flock. It's been a fun ride, Max, but this is my stop, see you in the afterlife. "

I snapped my wings out and took off with new determination in my eye. Next Stop, Itex headquarters, Australia.

**Yeah I know it sucked and I could have had a more impressive ending. But I couldn't think of anything else. Ok that was the ending to the sad part, Or the partially sad part, I have no idea how good these last two chaps were. That's what reviews are for! The bluish-purplish button is just calling your name!! (Seriously what freaking color is that thing?!)**


	3. Happy Birthday

**This Chap is just catching up to what the flock has been up to, so nothing very exciting in the next chap. There was an extremely random story that I just wanted to stick in. It doesn't really seem to fit in with the story very well, but who knows… it may, or may not, become of importance…. Just giving you a warning to pay attention…. Well, Enjoy the next chap!**

Chapter 3: Happy Birthday

Nine years later

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!!

Happy Birthday dear Maaaaaaaaax!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

I had taken his advice and I settled down together with the flock. A place I can call home. We now live in a house out of town, far enough away for us to be able to fly with no one seeing us. But close enough for Gazzy and Angel to go to school. We have a huge yard with plenty of room to play in, and a small pool with a diving board. Mostly we just flew and cannonballed into the little thing. We lived in a paradise, in southern California, the surfing state. I thought the flock would like to settle down somewhere near the beach because they liked it so much. We only lived 10 minutes away from it, and we had found a place fairly secluded were we could let out our wings, and just be ourselves. (**A/N Ok people I know southern Cali is not like this, but just pretend there is a beach that is not totally crowded up by tourists.)**

"God Max!! Stop sitting there making up a wish! Blow out the candles!!" Gazzy cried irritated.

I stuck my tongue out at him, Thought of a wish, the same as every year, **(A/N any guesses as to what she wishes for??) **and blew out all 21 of them. Except I kinda spit on the cake a little bit.

"EWWWE!" Everyone cried, except Me and Gazzy. Iggy said it a little late, but caught on.

"You're all a bunch of babies! I'm gonna eat it anyways!" Gazzy said "Dibs on the piece with the most frosting!"

"EWWWWWWWEE!!" cried everyone but Gazzy.

"Fine, more for me!" Gazzy exclaimed

Yes, Gazzy turned into a pig. Though he somehow managed to stay ultra-skinny. He had turned into a complete sexist pig. He was completely obsessed with girls, constantly trying to get dates with girls, and when we went out in public he seemed unable to stop himself from checking out girls. He also learned how to "hold it in" If you know what I mean. I wouldn't blame any girl for falling for him. He had turned into a complete All-American 17-year-old Hottie. (Not like I'm hitting on my brother!) With his now dark blue eyes, blonde hair, and huge muscles, he was on of the cutest guy in the high school. He was ultra-tan because he had gotten into surfing, and was always at the beach, (the one with girls, not our secluded one.) But he constantly complained that he had to wear a wet-suit because of his wings, and also said it messed up his "perfect tan" because the suit covered up different parts of his body, resulting in several different skin tones. By the end of the summer he was a totally zebra striped, and he had to get a spray on tan for fear that girls wouldn't want to go out with a "zebra boy." If only they knew… Another downside to the suit is that it was hard to put it on. When you attempted to zip up the back, it would constantly catch on one of his feathers. (Ouchness!)

Nudge was your typical 21 year old young adult, well except for the wings. She was tall, skinny, and pretty much looked like a runaway supermodel. To some degree she hasn't changed much, except her hair was less curly then it was when she was 12. Yes she still talks like there was no tomorrow, but we love her. With great effort she can keep her mouth shut, but most of the time she sees no reason to do so. In the past 3 years she and Iggy had gone from best buds, to a couple. They started going out with each other, and were still together to this day. They both have their own rooms, but they choose to share one. God only knows what goes on in there at night. I really don't want to know…

Iggy had changed only a little. He had tried to get tan, but his skin just wouldn't allow it. He laid out for 40 minuets in our backyard. Poor Iggy ended up burning his entire back, including his wings. (Ouchness squared!) When he finally healed from the burn, he never tried to tan again. So he stuck with his pale skin. He was tall like the rest of us, about 6 inches taller then me, and I was freakishly tall for any adult. He still had blond hair, and his blue eyes remained sightless. But he still had the amazing bat-like raider that allowed him to know were everything was. He was the largest and tallest of us all and had a wingspan of a whopping 15 feet.

Angel was 15, and was still our baby. Ange was just about as good looking as Gazzy. She was the all-American blond-hair blue-eyed beauty. When it came to the winter formal, pretty much every guy had asked her, and by the time she came home, she was carrying 12 flower banquets and 2 boxes of chocolates. In Angel's School it was considered un-cool for a guy to ask out a girl without giving her flowers or chocolates or something. **(A/N Heh. School, un-cool. That rhymed! I'm a poet and I know it… Ok I think I killed it.)** Gazzy and Angle were one of the coolest people in school. Angel didn't even have to buy trendy clothes to look good and be admired. She is quite a fuuun teenager. You think that a mind reader child is hard? Try a hormonal mind reader teenager that can fly incredibly fast, even for me. She keeps on forcing me to say yes to her being able to go out with some guy. True story. The one good thing was that Angel could no longer use the sad puppy face. She was not the adorable little kid she used to be; therefore she couldn't pull it off anymore. Nowadays Angel was into cheerleading, and she had practice every day after school. She was really good at the top of the pyramid because she was so light. She was actually good at everything that had to do with cheerleading period. She could jump incredibly high, was super light, strong, and more fit then any other person in the school (except Gazzy.) Just one of the positives to being a mutant freak and needing over 3,000 calories a day.

And me? I was the second biggest of our little flock. I had cheered up some after **he** left us. I still can't bring myself to say his name, and tried to not think about him.

For some reason, my blond hair had darkened to brown. Until there was only little natural highlights of blond. My eyes had gotten lighter, even though during your teenage years your eyes are supposed to get darker. Hey I'm not complaining, I love my new light brown eyes. My wingspan has finally finished growing, measuring at 14 feet. (You think the growing pains you have are bad? Try wings, growing pains there hurt like heck.)

"Uhhhh, Max?" Nudge said. "Why are you spacing out? Are you thinking? What about? Is it that time when…" Nudge was stopped by Iggy covering her mouth

Shoot was I just sitting there the entire time thinking about the changes we went through. This was embarrassing. Think of an answer Max!

"Uhhh, sorry, just thinking." I answered slowly. Hows that for a super intelligent, fast comeback, answer?

"Alrighty then, could you maybe multitask while thinking. Its possible to think and listen at the same time you know." Gazzy said. "By the way you didn't answer my question. Do you mind if me and Iggy go on a hike? To enjoy my brothers company?" he trailed off.

"Your going to test bombs, aren't you?" I guessed "Do you remember last time you tested a bomb, little Gazzy?"

_**Max thinking-flashback**_

Did I tell you Gazzy had become a friggin genius when it came to bombs, fire, you know, the usual. One time he decided to "test" his "small prototype". So he thought it would be "funny" to bury the bomb with a looong piece of fuse that connected to it. He placed it about 40 feet away from the front door. (He thought it would be enough room, dear god was he wrong.) So when I came back from the grocery store, I was carrying a huge load of food, when Gazzy set the thing off. And one of the loudest bombs I ever heard went off. (I grew up with two CERTAIN pyromaniacs coughGazzyandIggycough, trust me this was pretty epic for them.) I flung the groceries into the air, and was caught by a sonic wave that flew me 10 feet away from were I was standing. When the bomb went off, I was **50** feet away…. The front door was** 40** feet away… get my drift? Well, yup, if you're smarter then the average pole, you figured it out. The bomb's waves hit our house, resulting in all of the windows shattering to 60 million pieces.

When the dust cleared and I got up, groaning, and brushing debris off my shirt. I looked strait in the eyes of Gazzy to see him with his huge guilty smile on his face. "GAZZY!!" I roared, and I swear that was one of the fastest Up and Aways I have ever seen him do. Of course I caught him with my uber amazing sonic speed, hit him while I was still going 200mph. I grabbed onto the back of his shirt, and he instinctively tucked his wings in. I flew back going around 300mph, with him struggling to loosen my grip. Of course I was stronger then him and made it back to the house with him practically suffocating in my grip. I landed, and ran holding (dragging) him up to the house and into the living room.

I found what I was looking for, a long piece of rope. Grinning evilly I tied him by his wrists and ankles to a chair before he could do anything. Gazzy was truly terrified by now, he knew I was out for revenge, "waddaya gonna do to me??" his voice cracked slightly. "I'm sorry! I must have planted the small bomb instead of the tiny one!! Don't kill me!!" Gazzy cried, attempting to cover his face, as if he expected me to punch him. Come on! I didn't play that unfair, how mean is it to punch someone that can't even move their hands?

"The small one!?!? THAT was the small one? If that was the small one, then where is the big one?!" I cried, mostly just playing up the drama of the moment. I really wasn't that mad, we could buy new windows, but I just wanted to teach Gazzy a lesson. This sure was a fun lesson to teach, it was like he expected me to beat him up or something. Normally he was Mr. tough guy like… like… well **him**. **He** always seemed to be tough, strong, and dark, but I knew **he** had a weakness somewhere. I felt a lump form in my throat and I changed the subject going on in my head.

"I'm sorry! I don't normally confuse my own bombs! You lose track of the name of each one after, like, the 100th one!" Gazzy cried, looking at me almost like he was pleading with his eyes.

"The 100th one!!! How many of these do you make? And were the hell are you hiding them! I have searched through Iggy and your room like a million times! And were do you hide them on your person!!" I cried trying to milk out these long awaited answers out of him. Gazzy resumed trying to cover his face with his shoulder, still struggling, trying to get out of the bonds.

"Max please! Don't make me answer those! Iggy will kill me!"

"Gazzy Ride if you don't answer at least one of my questions I will just walk away, leaving you here!" I said trying to sound threatening.

"At least answer were you hide them on your person! I have stripped you down to your underwear looking for those!! Where are you hiding them??" I pressed.

"Max, I can't… I won't tell you!" Gazzy replied.

"Oh well Gazzy, you put this on yourself." I checking to make sure his bonds were tight enough, so he wouldn't be able to get away. You could tell Gazzy hated not seeing what I was doing behind his back; everyone in the flock is like that. I know it was so cruel to not let Gazzy even open up his wings, much less get up and walk. Then I just walked out the door, going to inspect the damage Gazzy had made. I knew after 2 hours sitting in that chair with nothing to do or eat would soften him up for my next round of questioning. MWAAAAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAAA!!! I was so evil! But I was really desperate to get these questions out of him. Next time he "mistakes" one of his bombs, he would blow up the entire east coast of the US. Oh he would speak soon; I have ways of making EVERYONE talk. I was feeling SO evil today!

I saw that the only damage to the house was the broken windows, and some messed up paint. Our old white house was now black in 2 sides, and white in the rest of the place. Gazzy would be spending his weekend painting and putting in new windows. MAYBE I might help a little if he would tell me were he hides those dang little bombs! I picked up glass for half and hour before I decided Gazzy had suffered enough.

I walked back inside to where Gazzy was sitting. (Not like he had a choice!) And said in my best mimicked voice of Bortchy. "Are you ready to be questioned?" The response to my mimicry was rewarded by Gazzy laughing hysterically at it. _Well we all can't be freaks that can perfectly mimic any voice!_ I stormed out of the room, and Gazzy instantly stopped laughing when I shot him the bird. _Really? Why did he always seem to get scared of me when I got mad these days? Huh, I guess I learned how to be truly terrifying. Claps for me!_ (Oh, God. Please tell me I didn't just think that.)

Well I guess he hadn't sat there long enough, oh soon he would talk. Soooooooon! MWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!

_3 hours later_

Damn! That kid did well under torture! He had been sitting there, not able to move or walk for 3 ½ hours! Yet he still wouldn't talk! The flock would be home soon! I better hurry and get the answers out of him before Iggy came and rescued Gazzy. Hmm… think Max, think…. Ah ha! It's a little desperate but it would work. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

I was just about to put my plan into action when I heard something ringing in the other room. It was Gazzy's phone! I ran into the living room, Gazzy was making a pathetic attempt to get the phone out of my reach. He probably knew what sort of horrors I could do to him if I got my hands on it.

I reached into his pocket, while he was trying to make this as hard as possible for me by moving around so much. I finally got it in my hands and Gazzy's eyes widened, wondering what I was going to do with it. Grinning evilly I flipped his phone open to see that he had gotten a text message from his current girlfriend. It read:

**Hey Gazzy. I'm free all night, Wanna do something, I'm bored out of my mind!**

I read it out loud to Gazzy, and pondered what sort of torturous message I could respond with. I didn't want Gazzy to get in trouble, just humiliate him. Hopefully I wouldn't have to send the message; maybe he would give me answers if I showed him what I was planning to send. After all I really didn't want to make Gazzy's high school years hell. I just wanted him to tell me where he hid the bombs, for the safety of America and all the people living in it. That and I think our neighbors that live 1 mile away might be pissed if we blew up their house, actually more like their city.

I went through Gazzy's addresses, found his girlfriend, and began to text to her.

Sorry, Cant. Tonight me and my little sister are going to watch the top ten countdown of the largest hailstorms on Discovery Channel! I've been waiting all week for this day!

When I was finished with the text, I read it out loud to Gazzy. Now understand that this was Gazzy's girlfriend and he was pretty popular for a Junior. I guess you could say he has a rep to protect. I'm not sure why he reacted so strongly because he could have just beaten the crap out of the first person who made fun of him. I'm sure no one else would be totally open to doing the same again.

"WAIT!! MAX!! DONT SEND IT! If I answer one question will you untie me, and not send that text?" he asked.

"Gazzy, I don't think you're in much of a position to negotiate." I responded "Either you tell me ansers of all of them, or this pretty little text message will get sent to your girlfriend. I heard this girlfriend of yours is pretty popular. She must have a lot of friends to talk to. Say I don't know, they might like to GOSSIP a little."

"Alright!" Gazzy said. "Ill tell you! Just put the phone down!"

I slowly closed his little black phone, and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then said in a triumphed voice, "Alright Gazzy, I'm listening."

Gazzy took a deep breath then said slowly "alright, the bombs are hidden…" That was when I heard a car door slam.

"Damn it!" I exclaimed. I was so close! Now Iggy, Gazzy's hero, would free him from the chair, and I would never figure out where they hide those things.

"What the…!?" Nudge said from outside. "What happened!?! Oh my god! I think erasers have finally attacked us!! They destroyed the house! Where are Gazzy and Max?!"

"What happened?" Iggy asked. But no one answered him, so I assumed Angel sent Iggy a mental picture of the house, because he gasped a second later.

"IN HERE!" Gazzy yelled! "HURRY IGGY!" All 3 of them came storming in, all in a fighting stance. Then they saw me standing there, and Gazzy strapped to the chair.

"What is going on in here??" Angel asked, as if she didn't already know.

"Easers didn't attack! Max strapped me down to a chair, and she is trying to force me to tell her information about our bombs, and I have been sitting here for 4 hours while she kept on trying to get the answers out! You made it just in time Iggy! I almost told her! She was going to send a text message to my girlfriend that would make me look like a nerd, and like I had no life! I couldn't get out of it without telling her anything!" Gazzy said this all in 17 seconds flat.

Everyones' gaze shot to me in a blaming accusing stare. "Well, Gazzy almost blew up the house! He thought it would be funny if he set a bomb off right in my face! And apparently he "mistaked" which bomb he buried!"

Iggy walked over to where Gazzy was, and felt around for the knot I had tied Gazzy to the chair with. And while he was working with the knots he said "Geeze Max! You know what its like for any of us not being able to move! That was so evil!" He had gotten one of Gazzy's hands free. "And that's what I like about you I suppose. I would congratulate you if you hadn't just tortured my partner in crime." He had finally worked out the knot and Gazzy sprung up from the chair.

"I swear I am never gonna sit in that chair ever again." Gazzy said, walking (running) over to retrieve his phone from the coffee table. "And I am soooo hungry." He said walking towards the kitchen. Yelling over his shoulder, "I'll kill you after I get something to eat!" That was going to take a while, He was going through growth spurts and he seemed to go through like 4,000 calories a day.

"That was so evil" Iggy, Nudge, and Angel said after Gazzy left the room.

"I'm sorry, wouldn't you guys like to know were those two pyromatics store their bombs? And Iggy don't answer that" I said. Oh soon I would get those answers, soon… MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

_**End Max thinking-flashback**_

"Ummmm, Nooo." Gazzy responded. Little brat. He knew exactly what I was talking about.

"Yeah sure, And to answer your question, you may not go have "brother time" with Iggy. I would rather you not blow up the entire US." I said. "But all of you may go to the grocery store. I swear you people eat so dang much. Don't complain, It's my birthday." I tossed my car keys to Nudge.

"Yeah, like you eat normally proportioned sized meals too." Nudge answered catching them, and walking out to the front where the cars were. Angle, Gazzy, and Iggy followed. I heard the garage door open, and a few seconds later, heard my little black sports car drive away.

I walked back inside, plopped myself on the couch, and turned on the TV. "Ahhh, a pigs paradise." I mumbled to myself.

**Ok that's the end. Sorry it was boring. It was mostly just letting you get to know the flock, and what they were up to these days. I promise the next chapter will be better! And just to tell you, Max really does miss Fang, she just was distracted with what was happening, and didn't think about him so much. Just clarifying.**


	4. A Walk Along The Beach

Chapter 4: A walk along the beach

Not like a care, but I haven't done a thing today. I guess a walk along the beach would be nice, and a flight wouldn't hurt either. So I wrote a note to the flock, in case they got back before I did. I highly doubted it though. We eat a lot of food, and to shop for a week's groceries takes about 2 hours.

**Guys-**

**Went for a little walk/flight. I won't be long, Iggy's in charge. Gazzy, you and Iggy better not sneak off and try to test bombs, or I will hunt you down.**

**-Max**

After the quick note, I didn't bother to lock the front door, anyone who was a threat to us wouldn't be troubled by a locked door. Although we have lived in that house for 8 years, and no erasers had found us. In fact about 9 years ago there was an article in a newspaper talking about Itex in Australia being burnt to the ground. We were there in 14 hours. We had found a single charred black feather. It was like losing him all over again. So me and the flock flew to LA, California. The weird thing was that the flight after us crashed. To me, that doesn't really seem like a good omen. **(A/N anybody watch the show ****Lost****? Well if you do, sound familiar at all? 4 8 15 16 23 42… the evilness….) **God I missed him so much. But he was gone, and I wouldn't see him until I died, then we would be together again. But until that day, I have to watch out for my flock.

I didn't realize that I was in the air, and was in a set course towards our favorite secluded beach. It must have been around 3:00 in the afternoon. So it wasn't blazing hot, yet was still warm. I landed gracefully, running on the sand so I wouldn't do a face plant. Finally I slowed down to a walk after gaining balance.

It was always nice to walk along the beach, to have the waves wash over your feet. It was good I decided to wear sandals and shorts today, so I slipped off my sandals and placed them out of the waves reach. I waded into about knee deep water, enjoying the cold water rushing by my legs. I looked at the horizon, and stared out, as far as I could see, there was no boats out. Well most of the time you couldn't see any boats from this beach, so not really a shocker.

After staring for a while, I decided to go see the tide pools. I gathered my sandals in my hands, and walked barefoot along the beach. The longer I walked into a northern direction, the rockier the sand got, and I needed to put my sandals on. Eventually I started coming across some smaller tide pools. On one side of me, there was the ocean, and on the opposite side, there was sheer sandstone cliffs. They were smoothly shaped, worn from days when the tide got high enough to hit them. I walked along the tide pools, staring into them to see if any life was in there. All I saw was a couple types of little crabs, some sea urchins, and a few little fishes.

I was walking along some of the bigger pools, the ones that were more interesting, and had more sea life. I was walking aimlessly along, when I saw what appeared to be a big dark colored log in the distance. That was really weird. Since when do California beaches have driftwood? And how could they make it all the way up to the pools? Something wasn't right, so I started moving closer to the log. Wait… that is an oddly shaped piece of wood… It almost looks like it was black and… well almost a darkish blue. Oh. My. God…. That was not a log... It was… a person… laying facedown on one of the rocks.

I ran up to the person, checking for a pulse. They had a strong good pulse for a regular human. I carefully turned the person over, and saw that it was a male. He had dark hair, and appeared to have olive toned skin. One rather important thing was, that he was totally thrashed. His face was distorted by bruises and cuts, and almost every other inch of his body that I could see.

Damn, what happened to him? Well I couldn't just stay here, he was knocked out cold. Maybe I could fly with him and bring him home, just long enough to see if he would wake up, and if he wanted to go to a hospital. I don't know why I was even bothering to bring him to my house, it just seemed like I could trust him. There was no way he was going to wake up within the 10 minutes it took to get him to my place.

So I braced myself to pick him up, surprised to see that he was so light. He must have weighed less than 130 pounds! When I was trying to put him in my arms I only just realized how tall he was. He seemed like he could have been "6, 5". He was tall and light, seem familiar somehow? I then took a quick up and away and headed towards home. It was hard to carry extra wieght, but I managed.

I landed on our front yard, and saw that the flock hadn't come home yet. I ran inside and placed him on the couch in the living room. I checked his pulse again, to see that it was fine, and ran to go get my first aid kit. I saw that his right arm seemed the worst. It was most likely sprained, maybe even broken. I wrapped it tightly in gauze and continued. I then started to clean his face, the more blood I wiped away, the more familiar it looked.

He stirred a little when I put a bandage on his cheek. Then the next thing I knew, his dark eyes snapped open, and he sprung up from the couch. He yanked my arm behind my back, and threatened to pop it out of its socket. It shocked me how quickly he had seemed to heal. A normal person wouldn't feel like standing up for another 3 days. "Who the hell are you, and where am I?" He menacingly from behind me.

Wait, that voice, I heard it during my nightmares, during good dreams, and it was the voice that haunted **his **memory. The dark hair and eyes, the olive skin, his voice, wieght, and height, all seemed familiar to me. He couldn't be… could he?

"Answer me!" He demanded again, pushing my arm a little harder.

"You're at my house. I saw you unconscious when I was walking along the beach, so I took you here. I started to treat you, when you attacked me." I answered slowly, but definitely not calmly. "Would cut it out! You're going to dislocate my shoulder." I added, irritated.

"Not until you tell me who you are!" he demanded, pushing my arm to the point were tears were streaming down my face.

"Alright fine! I'm Max!! Now would you stop trying to break my arm off?" I said. "Jesus, Fang!" _Oh. My. God. Did I just… call him Fang? Where did that come from?_ I wish I could turn around to see his face. "Look I'm Max, Maximum Ride, now just let go of my arm, and let me see your face!" He suddenly loosened his grip, and I swung around to look the guy. _Well, he really does look like Fang, all grown up, but how was that possible? Fang is dead._

"How do you know my name?" He demanded.

_So this was Fang!_

"You can't possibly be Maximum! I know your lying! Just tell me who you really are!" Fang said.

"Fang? F-Fang? Is that really you?" I starred at him, the more I looked, the more I recognized him. "Oh my god Fang! I missed you so much!" I threw my arms out and hugged him. He pushed me away, and gave me an oh-my-god-get-off-of-me-you-freak look. "Fang, it's me. Max." I said. To tell you the truth I was a little hurt. _Why did he not recognize me?_

"Ok I will admit; you look a lot how I pictured Max grown up. But prove it. Prove you are Max." He looked at me smugly, expecting that I wouldn't be able to.

"Alright fine." I knew this was Fang, attitude and all, so it wouldn't hurt to show him my wings, hopefully. I shrugged off my jacket, and slowly unfolded my wings. "This proof enough for you?" I asked him. My wings still unfolded, I looked expectantly at him

Fang just stood there, looking a little shocked at my wings. "Max? Is that really you?" Suddenly he just broke down and hugged me, really tightly. _Since when does Fang hug people? Wow, he really changed so much!_ "Max, I'm so sorry! I had to leave; I couldn't just let the flock suffer anymore." I exchanged the hug back enthusiastically.

"Fang." I whimpered "Fang, its ok. I missed you so much, and I love you too." I whispered in his ear. "You have no idea how long I have wanted to say that to you."

"You love me? Max you have no idea how happy that makes me." Said Fang in a whisper. Then he slowly inched his face closer to mine, until our lips touched. After that it was like I had no mind, he kissed me, and I kissed back. His hand gently easing up and down my back, sending chills through my whole body. He practically crushed me against his body, and even through his shirt I could tell he _ripped_. I guess that's another pro to being a mutant freak, you get a great body build.

_How long had we been kissing?_ Don't ask me, could have been a few seconds, could have been hours. All I cared about at the moment was that Fang and I were together and that's all that mattered.

We finally broke apart, both of us were gasping for breath. But were still close enough to kiss again, without moving anything but our necks. "So how do I know you are really Fang?" I asked him. He just rolled his eyes. Then suddenly snapped his wings open.

Damn! Iggy's wings were big, but Fangs… they were huge! They must have been 15.5 feet, maybe even bigger! "Wow…" Was all I said. "Dang Fang. You grew so much." I then, without thinking, blurted out one of my thoughts. "Have you been working out, 'cuz whatever you've been doing, its working." I blushed, I really hadn't meant to say that. Both of allowed ourselves a smile. Mine was an embarrassed apologetic smile. Fang's was small, but still… Fang, smiling. **(A/N yes people, hallmark moment! Yey Fang smiled, woop de do! I know fang is OOC, get over it. May I continue?) **

"Fang." I whimpered "please don't leave. I don't think I could bear it if you left again. Stay with me. And the flock."

Fang was starring into my eyes, and then answered. "Ok. I won't leave, at least without telling you."

"Thank you, that's all I'm asking for." I said

Yet again we started kissing. This time both of our wings were open. My hand around his neck, Fang's both wrapped around my waist. It continued for a couple more seconds, a few totally blissful, heavenly seconds.

Then, outside we both heard a car door slam. Fang and I broke apart, breathing heavily. A pair of footsteps were making its way up to the door.

"So Fang." I said rather calmly for after what we just did. "Ready to see the kids?"

**Yup, got nothing to say. Except… You! The person in the back, the one with the striped shirt. Yeah you! Review! (Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this rhyming thing!)**


	5. Fever

**So people, Fangy gets to meet the kids. Well I won't bother to bore the crap out of you, so enjoy the next chappie!**

Chapter 5: Fever

Fang looked at me in surprise. (I mean like surprised for Fang.) "Max? You had kids!? With who? Please, don't tell me it's Iggy." Fang said. I nearly gagged at the Iggy part.

"Ok I'm going to ignore the part with Iggy, because now I'm really freaked out you would think that." I said back to him, and almost hyperventilating at the thought of me and Iggy… doing it. "Actually Fang, I meant the kids as in the flock" Fang got as close to blushing that I have ever seen him. "And thanks for giving me that lovely image of me and Iggy." I added sarcastically.

The conversation stopped after the front door opened. And Iggy called out, "Hello? Max? You there?"

"Go upstairs!" I mouthed to Fang "I want to talk to him before he sees you!" Fang must have understood because he stealthily and soundlessly made his way up the stairs.

I walked to the front door, and saw all of the flock unloading the groceries from the trunk.

"Hey Max?" Nudge said. "We were on the way home from the grocery store, and we saw that Spiderman 6 was out, and we were hoping Gazzy, Angel, and I could see it. It starts at 5:30 and its 5:00 right now" **(A/N I know Spiderman 6 doesn't exist, remember this is 9 years into the future.)**

_Perfect, that leaves time for me to break the news to Iggy alone._

"Sure" I said. "And I know it won't be just the three of you. Come on Gazzy, I know better then that. Who are you going with?"

"Yeah, I knew you would catch that. I'm going with Alexa." Gazzy said.

Well this was new; they had been going out for two whole weeks! Gazzy always seemed to have a new girlfriend every seven days. This must be some kind of a record for him.

"Alright, you guys can go. What time does it end at?" I asked.

"8:00, it's a long movie." Angel answered. I nodded at this.

"Alright you guys. Bring the groceries in, and then you can go." I said. They did what they were told, and took off in Nudge's Acura. That thing sure was getting old, time for her to get a new car. She liked it because it had four wheel drive, and it was a big car, so nobody got claustrophobic. Much…

After the flock had left, Iggy and I went and sat down on the living room couch. Where Fang had been lying no longer then 30 minutes ago, unconscious. "So Iggy, how was the shopping?"

"Fun…" he answered sarcastically. We had a long silence, both of us wondering what to say next. Well this was awkward, how to start…

"Someone came while you guys were gone…" I started.

"Who was it? Some girl wanting a date with Gazzy?" Iggy asked.

"Actually it was for me…" I mentally slapped myself for this statement.

_Nice to be break it to him gradually Max. I mean, who would visit me? I didn't know many people, I guess I had never really gotten over Fang leaving, so I wasn't really a social butterfly. _**(A/N people, its an insider joke, so if you don't entirely get it, that's fine, your not retarded.)**. _Smooth, Max._

"For you? Who was it? I didn't know you met anyone." Iggy asked.

"Um, actually it was more like I brought him here." I said. Iggy just stared at me blankly, wondering were this was going. "Well I found someone on the beach, and the person was unconscious…"

"Oh my God, what happened? Wait! You brought a stranger HERE!? Where?!?" Iggy panicked.

"Iggy, calm down!" I hissed. I knew I was probably being insanely paranoid. I didn't want Angel to read Iggy's mind, and figure out what had happened.

"No it wasn't a stranger. It was someone I knew my whole childhood."

"Max, you only knew 5 people in your childhood." Iggy said stating the obvious. "Four of us were all together, and nowhere near the beach. And the other is dea-, oh, Max I'm sorry." Iggy said. He sat there awkwardly, probably waiting for my reaction.

"Iggy, It's fine. Really I'm ok." I said reassuringly.

Iggy felt my cheeks to feel if they had tears. Finding there was none, he dropped his hand, a look of confusion on his face.

"Come on Iggy, think! The answer is right in front of you!" I urged him.

"But Max-" Iggy said "Its not possible! Nothing fits the hints you have given me!"

"Iggy! Oh my god! The answer is so obvious! It's standing right in front of you naked, dancing, and is on fire! Come on, it's not that hard! You only have five possibilities!" I practically screamed at him.

"Would you stop taunting him, and just tell him I'm alive." Fang said quietly from the bottom of the stars. I hadn't seen him because my back was to the stairs. Iggy's eyes widened momentarily. He wasn't expecting a voice to come from nowhere.

"Max? Who is that? It sounds just like-" Iggy stopped. "Like… Fang." He finished hesitantly.

"NO FREAK'IN DUH! Of course it's Fang!" I yelled at him, finally losing patience. Iggy's face changed from surprise, to happiness.

With no warning Iggy leapt up from the couch yelled as loud as he could "Fang!" And crushed Fang into a hug, where he stood there as the unbending statue as usual. Some things never change I guess. Iggy didn't really seem to care that Fang wasn't returning it. **(A/N This is strictly a brotherly moment, so don't let your minds drift to thinking they are gay now.)**

They broke apart "I missed you, bro." Fang said "So I take it you're not mad at me?"

"Don't sweat it; I got over it a long time ago." Iggy said. "I'm just glad you're not dead, how'd you do it solo Fa-… what are you doing?" Somehow Iggy must have sensed that Fang wasn't standing still, sometimes that kid just freaks me out. Fang was all wobbly, rocking from side to side. He almost looked like he was about to fall over. Basically he looked like a drunken person trying to stand up strait.

Then Fang just fainted right in front of us. I bent down quickly and rushed to check his pulse. It was steady and even, but a little slow. That was normal when you were asleep though.

"Fang! Fang? Can you hear me?" I whispered into his ear. No answer. He must have been really tired, but still, just fainting so suddenly wasn't normal. So Iggy and I checked him out to see if anything was wrong. As far as we could tell, he was fine. No major injuries, except a sprained arm, and his head had quite a few bumps. I checked further to see for a concussion. There was some bleeding, but nothing to be really concerned about. We have all gone through worse. The one thing that concerned me was that he had a fever. Not good when you have a concussion, even a small one.

"He has a small fever, so I want to watch him for a while. He's totally whipped, let's just get him upstairs so he can sleep." I said. In response, Iggy just nodded. So both of us bent down, picked up Fang, and carried him up the stairs.

We walked along the upstairs hallway, and Iggy stopped in front of my room. Iggy said in a smug tone "Come on Max, admit it. You want Fang in your room while you 'make sure he is ok.' Besides, when he wakes up, you two can have your 'private talking t-" I smacked Iggy to make him shut up, almost dropping Fang in the process.

"Alright, fine. Let's get Fang in my room, because I need my hands free to do something." I forced Iggy through my doorway, and we carried Fang towards my queen bed. The second Fang was on my mattress, I punched Iggy on the arm. "That's for being perverted." I said to him. "Now go downstairs and make Fang something to eat, he's probably starving." I said. Iggy walked out of my room, and surprisingly didn't say anything obnoxious or sarcastic. Quite a shocker, that one was.

As soon as Iggy left the room, I checked on Fang. Of course he still had his fever, but it hadn't gotten worse. So I went to go get a thermometer in the bathroom, and sat down on the bed next to Fang. I tried to get Fang's mouth open, but gave up after a minute. I would take his temperature later, if he let me. Which I knew he wouldn't without a struggle.

I thought I should probably get his shirt off, and cool him down. Slowly and carefully I sat Fang up, he was out cold still, and didn't twitch at all when I touched him. I successfully removed it, and was shocked to see all of the scratches and scars that covered his entire chest and back.

But his wings were… incredible, I guess you could say. I mean I had never seen Iggy without his shirt on since he was 18. So I don't really remember seeing such giant wings. Even tucked in, I could still tell they were huge. I felt like I was violating Fang's privacy a little by oogleing at his wings, so I gently set him back down on the bed. Throughout the whole thing, Fang hadn't moved one bit. He was probably just totally whipped from the last fight. I then stared mesmerized at Fang's bare chest, it was totally beat up, but he _ripped!_

_Max! Stop looking at him like that! Stop being a pervert! Just stop! UGGH! I can't! Wait maybe I could put some wet washcloths on him, to make him more comfortable. (And to stop me from staring!)_

I got 3 wet washcloths and placed them on his chest. This time he twitched, and a small smile spread across his sleeping face. Well, when he is asleep he isn't focusing on his emotions, and apparently Fang actually has them. Then Fang muttered so quietly I could barely make it out "Max. Love. Miss. You… I'm… sorry..." at his statement I chuckled a little. So Fang really did love me, and he missed me while he was gone. Cool. I was never going to forget what he just said. Now if he brings up the whole valium thing, I'll have something of my own to bring up. Blackmail is so, so sweet!

**I couldn't figure out were to end this chappie, so I just ended it here. (No duh.) Better then a cliffy, I guess. I knew I said that Fang would meet all of the kids, but I changed my mind. At least he got to see Iggy. I expect chap 6 to come out today. If my computer decides to be temperamental, maybe tomorrow. Well, It'll be out soon is all I can promise. Review!!!!! I only have 4 reviews! 2 from one person! That's pathetic! I want to know if people like my story, and if it's worth continuing! You don't have to have a pen name to reiview, so everyone is capable to do so. Any comment helps, even if you tell me it sucks!**


	6. Disneyland

**I got nothing to say, so without further ado, enjoy chapter 6. **

Chapter 6: Disneyland

I looked at the clock. It was 6:00, the flock wouldn't be home for a while. _Where is Iggy with Fang's food? _Hopefully smelling Iggy's mouthwatering cooking will wake him up. I knew Fang was really hungry because I kept on hearing his stomach growl, really loudly too I must add. I'm sure he had probably gone through 9 years of malnutrition and being starving 90 of the time, so he probably would love a real meal. The only thing I had heard downstairs was Iggy getting out some pots, and other silverware. I smelled some kind of red meat, and soup. I was sure he was almost done with Fang's dinner.

I heard soft footsteps coming up the stairs, and I recognized them as Iggy's. He came in carrying a huge bowl of soup, half of a loaf of bread, a rack of ribs, and two huge pieces of stake. "Wait, I couldn't carry everything upstairs, so I'm gonna have to make two trips." Said Iggy on his way out the door. About half a minute later he was back with a bunch of hamburgers and some mashed potatoes. "Seriously I am in love with that giant BBQ. I cooked the hamburgers, ribs, and stake all at the same time, and nothing burned!" Iggy said. He set all of the food down on my desk. (good thing it was clean today!)

We then both just stared at Fang expectantly. He was breathing through his nose now, and it seemed to become less deep, and more frequent. Fangs eyes fluttered opened, but he shut them again. The next second they flew back open again as he registered the smell, and what it meant. "Is that red meat?" Fang asked us longingly. We both nodded. "For me?" Fang asked. We both nodded again. Fang leapt out of the bed, staggered towards my desk. He sat in my chair and ate. And ate, and ate. It was rather disgusting; it was like Fang hadn't eaten in forever. He shoveled food into his mouth faster then Gazzy did when he had missed a meal. (Trust me, seeing a starving Gazzy eat is not pretty. Been there, seen that, don't want to go back.)

"Hungry much?" I asked Fang. Fang just nodded and continued.

Then he said "You have no idea how long ago it was since I've had red meat. Mostly just been eating rabbit or rat." Fang said between bites. "Iggy, you're a gourmet genius." he moaned happily, continuing to stuff his face like there was no tomorrow.

"So Fang, what have you been up to these 9 years?" I asked conversationally.

"Uh, nothing much. Saving the world, destroying Itex." Fang said. He sounded like he didn't really want to talk about it. I would leave him be for now, but I would need the answer eventually. I'd get them out of him sooner or later.

After 13 minutes, Fang had finished everything. The whole time Iggy and I were starring in amazement on how fast he scarfed all of it down. Fang must have been starving, and it may have been part of the reason for why he fainted.. Finally he cleared all of the plates, sat back in his chair, and sighed happily. "That was really good Iggy." Fang said. He still looked a little tired, so I guess he could sleep until the flock came home. Hmm, it was 6:15. That left him two hours to sleep.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone. I'll make sure the flock won't come upstairs when they come home." Iggy said, walking out of my room.

"Ok mister, you're going to go back to sleep. No arguing." I said, after Iggy had left. I pulled Fang up onto his feet, and lead him to the bed.

"Do I look like I'm arguing?" Fang said sleepily.

"Wait, before you take your little nap…" I shoved the thermometer in him mouth, and he instantly protested.

He grabbed my hand and yanked it away from his mouth and said. "Your not taking my temperature, I'm not sick."

"Yeah you are. Fainting would qualify as being sick." I said. Fang just rolled his eyes.

"Look, either we do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which will it be?" I said threateningly. Without waiting for an answer I shoved the thermometer back in his mouth. This time Fang didn't stop me, he just glared at me the entire time. After a minute I pulled it out. "100.2º" I announced. "You still have a fever, but it's not as bad as before. Now you can go to sleep." I said.

"Yes, Mom." Fang said snidely. He closed his eyes, and most of his body relaxed.

Within the minute he was sound asleep. I laid down next to him, and listened to his deep even breathing. The rhythmic beat of his heart. There was no were else in the world I wanted to be at. Right here next to Fang would be fine forever.

The next thing I knew, I woke up. But when did I fall asleep? I rolled to my other side, and checked the clock._ 7:55!_ _The flock would be home any minute! I can't believe I fell asleep; I barely did anything today that would make me that tired! I'm such an idiot! How am I going to break Fang existence to the flock? _

I was about to insult myself more, when I finally realized that I was so close to Fang. We were about an inch away, and I could practically feel the heat coming off his body. Me and Fang. Alone. In a bed. Oh God, if someone came in here right now, what would they think? I sprung out of the bed, freaking out a little. What if Iggy came in while we were asleep? What if he drew a wrong conclusion? Oh this is bad! Me and Fang are not like that. We are friends, best friends, alright a little more then that. But we wouldn't do… well, that.

Fang stirred a little, I'm guessing he probably felt me get out of bed. "Maaaaaaaaaxxx… Sleeping." Fang moaned with his eyes still closed.

"Fang, get up." I said. I almost applauded myself for getting out of that situation without having Fang make fun of me for being perverted and trying to sleep with him. I would probably kick his ass if he tried though. "Fang, get out of bed! The flock will be here in a half hour!" I said. Fang grabbed his pillow, groaned, and placed it on top of his head, and covered his ears.

I decided to switch tactics, so I learned over him, and yelled at the top of my lungs, "FANG IS GAY!!" Yup, that worked, Fang woke up, and jumped about a foot in the air. First he was shocked by the sudden noise, but then he actually thought about what I had just said. That was what REALLY woke him up.

"I am not." Fang stated. He swung his long legs over the side of my bed, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Oh good, you're up. Did I wake you?" I asked innocently.

Fang glared at me and repeated. "I am not gay."

"Someone seems a little defensive." I said, and I raised an eyebrow. "Whatever you say." I said in a doubtful tone. Fang shot me the worst glare he had in him. If looks could kill, I'd be dead by now.

Deciding I better not irk him anymore, I said briskly "Well, while you're awake you should make yourself look better." I pulled him up by the arm, so he would stand up. He groaned, but cooperated. "To tell you the truth, you look like crap." I said cheerily. I handed him a towel. "Go take a shower, just make sure you don't get your arm wet."

"Yes, mom." Fang said again.

"Bathroom is to the right of my room." I said. I heard him walk down the hall, and open up the bathroom door. Half a minute later, the shower started.

I changed into different clothes, my other ones were still a little wet from the beach. I had gotten a little too close to a wave, and ended up getting the bottom of my shorts wet. I really hadn't noticed until right now. Believe it or not, finding your long lost best friend keeps you mentally busy.

Oops I forgot to tell him that we set the water temperature up high here. Nudge absolutely loves steaming hot showers. Oh well, Fang would figure it out on his own. From the bathroom I heard a muffled "Shit! It's hot!!" from Fang. I'm guessing he found out. Oops.

I thought I should probably get Fang some clothes from Iggy's room, Fang's were totally savaged and covered in his own blood. Why didn't I think of that earlier? I walked down the hallway, and into Iggy's room. I grabbed a pair of sweats, and a t-shirt, both were Fang's usual black. Gee, how'd I know? I noticed Fang had forgotten to lock the bathroom door, so I went ahead and let myself in.

Averting my eyes from the shower, I placed his new clothes in a neat pile next to his old ones, thrown in a heap. I headed back out the door, but I wasn't really thinking, so I kind of got a glimpse of Fang behind the glass. I blushed, and quickly averted my eyes. It's a good thing I didn't see anything, he had his back to the glass door. He didn't even see me come in. Dang boy wasn't keeping his arm dry like I told him to, oh well, it's his arm. I snuck out quietly and walked back to my room, sat down on my bed, and allowed myself to space-out.

I hate to disappoint you, but this time really isn't very different then 2008. The only major invention that came out was a very crude robot that made meals for people. The reason why it was so crude was because it couldn't really move fast, and it took forever to make a meal, and the meals tasted pretty bad. Nobody normal had one. Of course there were some pretty cool advances in world records; some guy lived till he was 115 years old. The guy was a doctor, so I guess that kinda makes sense. All and all nothing much changed at all. Global warming hadn't killed us yet, in fact it seemed like it was starting to get a little better. The amount of major storms decreased significantly, and we havn't experienced anything disastrous ever sense Hurricane Katrina. No thanks to Itex. Itex went from being a huge bloodsucking corporate company, to being a fairly small business with not a lot of power.

Then, Disney basically took its place. It's a huge company that has a million commercials on each channel, and Disney products seemed to be everywhere. I'm sorry, but a huge bloodsucking company whose leader is a freaky talking mouse, is so wrong. They have a new Disney world, a new Disney land, Disney zone, Disney cruises, Disney water parks, Disney Island, Disney hotels all over the globe, and a million products all run by Disney. Hopefully they wouldn't go power mad and try to kill all the people in the world, 'cuz seriously a 'family business' doing that would be quite scary. I guess a lot of things really did change; you just really don't stop to think about it.

"Hey, Earth to Max." Fang said, waving his arm in front of my face. I came to, and said

"Sorry, just spacing."

"Yeah, I knew that." Fang said. "By the way, thanks for telling me that you frigg'in shower is set to boiling hot water."

"Yup, sorry I forgot to tell you. But who steps in a shower they have never been in, and just starts the water without thinking?" I asked snidely.

"Whatever. Thanks for the clothes; they must be Iggy's, right?" Fang Asked

"Yeah, they're Iggy's, we need to go shopping to get you some new clothes." I answered him.

"Wow, the kid actually has black, good for him. I remember he used to be obsessed with red." Fang said.

"Fang, there's a lot of things you don't know about the flock. You missed so much." I said. Fang wasn't looking directly at my face, so I knew he felt guilty.

"You have no idea how much Gazzy changed; you will be shocked when you see him." I said. "He's an old teenager now, Ange is a too." I said.

"Good, God. Seriously?" Fang said, looking bewildered. "Can't imagine Angel as a teenager. Has she…" he stopped in mid sentence when we heard the front door slam, and several voices talking excitedly. Including Nudge singing the Spiderpig song. After The Simpson's Movie she got such a kick out of that stupid song that she sings it ever freak'in second. Sometimes I hear her sing it in her sleep, I'm not even kidding.

"Well Fang, you're about to see the flock after 9 years. How do you feel?" I asked Fang in a game show host tone of voice.

"Brilliant." Fang answered in a slightly uneasy tone.

**Yeah, the usual, blah blah blah. People, just review and I'll shut up.**


	7. Angel

**This is purpously put here to waste your time. HA HA!!! (JK, don't kill the author.)**

Chapter 7: Awkward silence

"_Brilliant" Fang answered in a slightly uneasy tone._

"Come on, they'll be really happy to see you. Just come." I said, pulling him out my bedroom door. At the top of the stairs I stopped. "Stay here." I stated quietly. "Don't come down till I tell you to."

"Just go" Fang whispered, shoving me down the stairs. I stumbled on second step, and shot Fang a glare on the way down. I walked down the stairs casually to the family room, and saw the flock all talking excitedly with each other.

"Hey guys, how was the movie?" I asked while walking into the room. I got two goods from Angel and Gazzy. Nudge launched into a huge recap of the entire movie, but Iggy stopped her by covering her mouth.

"Good. Glad you guys liked it." I said after Iggy made Nudge shut up.

"Max…. can I talk to you for a sec?" Angel asked. She had her eyebrows raised, and a confused look on her face.

"Sure." I said. Shoot, I think she found out. I could have sworn I blocked my mind from her, how'd she get through? She led me to the kitchen, and closed the door.

"Max, why are you blocking your thoughts from me? Is something wrong?" Angle asked.

"No, everything's fine. Just peachy." I said trying to sound sincere.

"Max, I know you're lying. Whenever you lie, you blink like crazy, and you use weird words. Since when do you say peachy?" Uh oh, Angel caught me. _Was it that obvious when I lie? _

"I, uh…uhhhh" I struggled to come up with a good answer. Finally I just gave up. "Alright, you caught me. Can you wait for a sec, I want to tell the whole flock together."

"Max, I want to know now." Angel answered stubbornly.

"Alright, fine Angel." I said. I searched for a way to tell Angel gently. "I don't know how to break it to you, so I'm just going to flat out tell you. Angel, Fang came back." I said. Angel blinked, and absorbed what I had just said.

The next thing I knew, Angel squealed incredibly loud, and threw her arms around me. "MAX!! THAT'S GREAT!" Angel yelled at the top of her lungs "OH! I HEAR HIS MIND!! FA-!!"

I cut her off by covering her mouth. "Shush! I want to break it to the flock gently!" I said harshly. Angel nodded; she was positively shaking in excitement.

"Calm down!" I demanded. She nodded enthusiastically and then, before I could react, she suddenly sprinted out of the room.

She yelled at the top of her lungs, "FANG IS BACK!!! HE CAME BACK!! FANG WHERE ARE YOU!?!" I chased after Angel, but I knew it was too late. I ran into the living room to see a shocked Gazzy and Nudge. They both looked at me wondering if what Angel said was true. They took in my expression, and figured out that that was the truth.

Gazzy looked totally thrilled, once it sunk in, and searched the room frantically to see if Fang was within sight. "Max, is it true? Where is he?" Gazzy asked. I didn't have time to tell him, because Nudge had a slightly different reaction.

Nudge sprinted across the room towards me, and pulled me in a tight hug. Then she squealed just like Angel, only Nudge's was a tiiiiiiiiny bit louder. "THAT'S GREAT MAX!!" then squealed again, but louder. Actually, this time she practically shattered my eardrum.

"I really didn't need that." I said clutching my ears "Well while you two have your little Squee fest, I'm going to go check and see if I will have any permanent damage to my hearing." I said, still covering my ears.

I walked to the bottom of the stairs. "FANG!! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE, BEFORE ANGEL AND NUDGE PERMINATLY MAKE ME GO DEAF!" I yelled.

He walked with incredible grace down the stairs, and stopped at the bottom "That went well." Fang said to me. I could swear I saw him smile a as he walked off to go see the flock. Actually, it was more like he walked two feet, when Nudge and Angel crashed into him, and crushed him in a hug. Fang was allowing them to, but wasn't really reciprocating. But still, that's the most you can expect from him.

"FANG! I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE OK! OH, IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU! I CANT BELIEVE YOU'RE ALIVE!" Angel or Nudge said, hard to tell. Well it could have been one of them, or a combination of both. The rest was too hard to understand. With Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel all yelling at the same time.

"I hate to kill your little uniting scene, but my ears are killing me. Just stop yelling, please!" I said irritably. They did stop yelling, and switched to very loud talking.

"Hey guys, I missed you too." Fang said. Only Fang sounded… happy, truly happy, not the usual extremely calm. There's a first for everything.

Just like that, the clouds parted, the sun came out, and the birds are singing. My world was at peace and it's what I had always dreamed of. All of us together, Fang and I reunited. This was the way our life is supposed to be.

"Fang, I'm so glad you came back." Nudge said, finally pulling away from Fang. "I'm glad to be back, I missed you all." Fang said happily. "You have no idea how long I have dreamed of this day." Fang added.

"Ditto." Iggy added. There were 4 other dittos that came after what Iggy said.

I looked to Fang beaming, he smiled a little in reaction to this. I could tell Fang was still really tired, and didn't really feel too hot.

"Hey guys, Fang needs to sleep. He is going to pass out." I said. "Actually I'm really tired too. You four can have dinner alone, me and Fang need to sleep." I added.

"Do I get a say in this?" Fang asked wearily.

"Nope. Now let's go upstairs before you pass out again." I said simply.

"Well apparently Mom wants me to go to bed. See you guys later." Fang said, he sounded physically and emotionally drained. I knew he hated being seen so weak, but I think he was so tired that he was past the point of caring. Tomorrow after he had slept some, we would see the real Fang come out.

The whole flock said goodnight to him and me. Angel and Nudge gave Fang another hug, and we went upstairs into my bedroom. "Well for now you're going to have to sleep in my room." I sat on the bed, and Fang joined me. Eventually we would need to get him a place were he can crash alone. "We will figure something out for your bedroom later." I said. "Do you mind sleeping in that stuff?" I said, nodding to his sweats.

"Sure, I don't really care." Fang said.

"Well, you try to go to sleep, but I'm gonna go change into my PJs." I said. I got up off the bed, and walked to my dresser. I picked up my comfortable PJs, a dark blue tang top with matching bottoms. I dressed in the bathroom, and came back to see that Fang still wasn't asleep. He didn't have his shirt on, and it looked like he was waiting for me. I closed the door behind me and laid down on the bed next to him.

"Hey, why did you take off your shirt?" I asked.

"Was hot." There he was with his short answers.

"Oh. Why aren't you asleep, you look really tired." I said. He rolled to his side so he could get a better view of me.

"I can't sleep." He stated. He looked me in the eyes, and his softened, they looked incredibly like the night sky. He looked truly relaxed, something he probably hadn't felt in a long time. What he said next was totally unexpected.

"Max, I need to do something. Just cooperate." Fang whispered, inching closer to me. I hadn't really realized how close we were. Soon our lips met, and we started kissing. I tangled my hands in his hair, and he put his hands around my waist, pulling me closer. We rolled over, so I was on top, not even breaking the kiss.

It only lasted for seven seconds, then the door slammed open, and Gazzy came into view. "Hey Max-… wow." Me and Fang jumped apart, but not before he caught a glimpse of us. "Well, I didn't realize I was interrupting something…" Gazzy said. He glanced at Fang, who didn't have a shirt on. "Dude, you should put some Bactine of that stuff." Gazzy said, referring to the cuts on Fang's chest. There was a long awkward silence, were Gazzy finally broke it by saying in an excited voice, "Well I guess it's about time you two get together. We've been waiting forever for this!" Gazzy said. Me and Fang both exchanged embarrassed glances, or as close as Fang could get to embarrassed. We didn't say anything to each other, or Gazzy. "Oh, I'm sorry; I interrupted the two lovebirds' private time. I'm sorry, I'll leave. You two can continue." Gazzy said, not at all awkwardly. He looked at me and Fang in turn, and then exited the room, closing the door.

"Well, at least he approves of us…" I started awkwardly. Fang just looked at me with the tiniest trace of embarrassment in his face. There was another long embarrassed pause. "You know, I'm really tired. I'm gonna go to sleep." I said in a falsely chipper tone. I was just trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, I am too. Goodnight." Fang said.

"''Night." I said back. We stacked fists, and we both rolled over so our backs were facing each other.

We both sat in silence for a while, waiting for sleep to come. When Fang finally said quietly, "Oh and Max…" Fang said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Happy Birthday." Fang whispered.

I smiled, and I sensed that Fang was smiling as well. The last thing I remember before drifting off to sleep was the deep steady breathing of Fang, right there next to me. I couldn't help but smile a little more, as I let sleep overcome me.

**Yeah people, blah blah blah. Just review and I'll shut up. My goal is to get 10 reviews by Monday night. I know you can do it! Thouch the freakishly colored button!! You people have actually done a pretty good job with reviewing, thanks everyone!!**


	8. Mall Stalkers

**Sorry this chappie took so long. It took me a while to write this one, cuz I wuz just being slow. Next one may be a while, so savor every second of this chapter. Expect at least one chappie over the weekend.**

Chapter 8: Mall Stalkers

I woke up the sound of Beacon sizzling. I inhaled the smell of yet another wonderful breakfast made by Iggy. I rolled over, and said in a hoarse morning voice "Fang, get up." To see that he wasn't lying in bed. I immediately freaked out, and quickly did a 360. Fang wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Oh God, he left! How could he! He'd only been here for a day! "Dude, Max. Chill," Came a voice from behind me. My eyes widened, and I whipped my head around to see Fang leaning coolly against the doorframe, wearing an amused-smug expression. He must have been in the hallway and silently crept up to the door after I had looked around.

I narrowed my eyes at him and said in a critical tone, "Seriously, you need to stop doing that!"

"Stop doing what? Breathing?" Fang answered calmly.

I gave my standard response, "You know what."

Fang shook his head and said in a teasing voice, "Max, it's not my fault that you don't listen carefully. I tripped in the hallway, you only had to listen to know I was there."

"I just woke up. What do you expect from a half-conscious person?" I said defensively back to him.

"You can knock out erasers when you're half-conscious, why can't you listen for someone walking down the hallway?" Fang answered smugly.

"Enough commentary on my listening." I answered in a final tone. "We need to get you more clothes today; you can't wear Iggy's stuff forever. You need a pair of jeans, and I highly doubt you and Iggy can fit in the same pair. Joy, we get to go shopping." I said sarcastically. I had lived in civilization for 9 years, but still don't like shopping. It just isn't my thing, and it will never be. But at least it means I can spend some time with Fang.

"How about we go shopping after breakfast?" The flock and I just went shopping five days ago, so I don't think they will want to go again."

"I'm perfectly capable of going shopping on my own." Fang started.

I interrupted by saying, "Yes, but you're not the one with the unlimited amount of cash on your credit card." I said smugly. Call me paranoid, but if he went alone I would be freaked out he would run away again. Fang gave in and nodded to show that I could come.

I got another pair of clothes for Fang from Iggy's room. A pair of cargo pants and a black t-shirt. (Fang want particularly thrilled about the pants.) While Fang was dressing in Iggy's room, I dressed in regular clothes. We meet in the hallway, so Fang and I headed down the stairs together. We saw that everyone was waiting for us, sitting at the kitchen table. For the first time in 9 years the flock would all be together and have a meal with everyone.

Gazzy smiled in his mischievous way and threw us this look that said I-remember-what-happened-last-night-and-I-ain't-gonna-forget-anytime-soon. I blushed ever so slightly, and I'm pretty sure Fang almost did as well. It didn't look like anyone else noticed, so I guessed that Gazzy hadn't told anyone. Yet.

We sat down next to each other at the table, and Iggy placed a huge plate of food in front of both of us. I raised my eyebrows at him to question why he gave us so much. "You didn't have dinner last night. And Fang needs protein, 'cuz seriously dude, you look like you need it really badly." Iggy answered. I wasn't going to complain, because I actually was really hungry.

I shoveled down bacon, pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Fang did the same. The others stared in amazement at me, mostly because I never skip a meal these days. Their for are never really that hungry. There wasn't any conversation going on, mostly just staring at Fang and I.

Fang ate everything quickly, and sighed contentedly when he was finished. "Thanks Ig." Fang said, patting his stomach. "Been forever since I've had two meals in a row and actually had enough to eat… feels good." Fang had positively become the chatter, he normally didn't talk that much to anyone but me. Its about time too, sometimes I just wanted to shove him up against a wall and force him to talk.

"So, Fang. How'd you do it? … How did you destroy Itex all on your own?" Angel asked.

"It's a long story. I'll tell the whole thing tonight… Me and Max are gonna shop for some clothes for me." Fang answered.

Angel was concentrating on something, probably trying to read his mind. She frowned at something. "Alright fine. But you can't keep the story from us forever." Angel said. Fang must have blocked his thoughts from her. What would motivate him to do that?

"Alright guys. Fang and I better go soon." I said. I got up from the table, and cleaned my dishes, putting them in the dishwasher. Fang did the same. "Ig, do you want any help with the pots and stuff?" I asked.

"No, we'll be fine. You two have fun." Iggy said. There was a hint of smugness in his voice, he knew I hated shopping.

"Ok, you guys have fun cleaning the dishes. We should be back in around three hours, probably more." I told them, checking my watch. "I have my cell phone if you guys need to call me." I said. The flock said goodbye to Fang and I.

I walked over to the front door, grabbed my keys from the hook, walked into our garage. Fang followed me, and we both sat in my black Mustang. Hey, it may be old, but that little guy still had a ton of speed left in him.

"Nice car, especially the color. How'd you afford it?" Fang murmured admirably.

I stuck the keys in the ignition, and the car purred to life. "The Maximum Ride card has an unlimited amount of money on it. We can get anything we want." I answered. I put the car in reverse, and pulled out of the garage.

Once we were on the street I asked Fang a question. "Why don't you want to tell us what you have been up to these 9 years?"

Fang decided to play the innocent card. "I don't know what you are talking about." He muttered.

"Come on Fang, you used us going to the mall as an excuse. You hate shopping. What's really up?" I asked, trying to keep my attention on the road as best I could.

"Look Max, whenever I talk about it… it brings back painful memories. I just don't like to talk about it," Fang said in a falsely calm tone.

I quickly looked at him when we were stopped at a light. I looked in his eyes and could see the pain in them, the tortures they must have put him through in those 9 years. The whitecoats can do so many things to you in that time, unimaginable things. Tortures can do a lot to a person, could change anyone permanently.

Fang must have gone through hell all of those years. There had been newspaper articles on Itex plants getting destroyed, burnt to the ground, one by one. After the 9th time this had happened, the flock had stopped coming to the sites, because we had never gotten more evidence then a few charred feathers. We knew Fang was alive, but if he was ok, was questionable. We knew when he wanted to come to us, he would, he could find us. We never gave up hope until one month; no Itex plants had been harmed. Then the next month, nothing. Then the next, then the next, then the next, no Itex plants harmed. It continued like that month, after month, after month. It was then when we had believed Fang had finally bitten off more then he could chew. The time when we gave up hope that Fang would ever come back. That was 3 years ago. The flock all pretended we had gotten over it, but inside, we all were still hurt. All of us secretly hoped that a miracle would happen, and Fang would show up at our front door. And it did happen, but just a little differently then we pictured it. Fang had crippled Itex so it was a minor company. In a way, he really had saved the world.

I didn't realize I had gone to autopilot, I wasn't thinking about were we were going. I saw in shock that we were already there. I drove through the parking lot, and tried to find a stupid spot. Finally I found one, way in the back, and I parked.

Fang and I got out silently, and slammed the door. "So, let me guess. Your style still hasn't changed?" I asked him.

"Nope." Was all he answered. I let a tiny smile show, there's the Fang I know and love. Him and his short answers.

We entered the front entrance, were we immediately saw a million (more or less) people. I groaned, and I could have sworn I heard Fang do the same. All of those people, in a small space. I get claustrophobic very easily, thanks to the freaking whitecoats and their damn cages.

"So were to?" I said over the noise of the crowds.

"Um, I don't know." Fang said

"Well neither do I. I wasn't with Iggy when he went shopping for clothes. And there's kinda an age difference between you and Gazzy…" I started, sounding clueless.

Fang and I looked this way and that, seeing if anything looked suitable for Fang. Basically, I was looking for a store with black in it, and jeans. That's it. "Well, that place looks good." I said, gesturing with my head towards a guys' store. It had a ton of black, actually it had nothing but black. If I wasn't stronger then three full grown men put together, I would probably be scared of the guys shopping in it.

Fang nodded his approval, and he walked in with me. The people who worked there kind of freaked me out a little, because they starred. They were all wearing guy-liner, and had multiple tattoos and piercings. **(A/N I just love the term guy-liner! It's funny. Guy-liner! Guy-liner!! Guy liner!!! It's fun to say! You probably think I'm a dork now. You're probably right.) **I looked at everyone, and was sure they were all human, and wouldn't freaking explode into a wolf at any second.

One of the guys shopping there was looking at me weird. Like white coats did when they were observing you. Like a zoo exhibit. He had strawberry blonde hair, was fairly tall, muscular, and his dark eyes blazed with something more then intelligence.

Fang saw me looking at pervert guy, and followed my gaze. He saw the guy, and narrowed his eyes at him. The guy didn't back off, he just continued starring. I decided to ignore him, maybe he would stop. Fang didn't have the same approach, he took a step forwards, as if he was ready to fight the guy. I held Fang back, but knew I couldn't if he got determined. He had gotten a lot stronger in those years.

"Fang, leave it alone. He's not worth it." I hissed quietly at him. Fang looked away from the guy, and looked at me. He nodded silently, and we browsed around the store. I didn't steal one look at the pervert guy, and didn't know if he was still starring. I tried to stay as far away from where I knew he was though.

I picked out a few shirts I thought Fang might like, and got them a little big, he likes them like that. We met in the back of the store, and I showed him the stuff I got. He liked them all, so he added them to his pile.

He went to go try them all on, and I waited outside the changing room, sitting on a bench. After a little while, he came back out. He had two piles, the stuff he fit into, and the stuff he didn't. By the end he had 7 shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, 2 hooded jackets, and a few other long-sleeved stuff. I paid for it all, and we walked out of the store. We had been in there for one hour.

We continued browsing outside the stores, going in ones that looked satisfactory. We had a million shopping bags, all of them for Fang. I managed to get Fang to wear something other then black, like dark blue, and a dark green. Hey, it wasn't black, and it was the only thing he would wear.

We entered this one store that wasn't totally gothic or punk. It had a bunch of colors, I knew I would only be able to get him into only a few things, but they had a ton of jeans. And hey, get this; I actually got Fang to consider a real green. Not a totally dark green that it was almost black, a real green.

Fang picked out what looked like a million pairs of jeans, and went to go try them on. As usual, I waited somewhat patiently outside the changing room. I tapped my foot nervously. I felt like I was being watched.

That was when I saw the weird guy that was starring at me in the first store we were at. He was looking me strait in the eye, and was walking right at me, a blazing look in his eyes. Something told me they were not entirely human.

**Dun, dun, Duuuuuuuuuuuuun. Oooooo a cliffie! This could be a totally normal person, and Max could beat the crap out of him. Or not…. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!! You'll find out next chappie!! …. Or not….**


	9. Scorch

**Well, it's finally done, sorry it took so long. Believe it or not, I got a life too, and I was packed all weekend. Sorry, this chappie is pretty short. I will try to post the next chappie soon, but I've got a pretty busy week . Sorry!! I'll post as soon as possible!**

Chapter 9: Scorch

_Fang picked out what looked like a million pairs of jeans, and went to go try them on. As usual, I waited somewhat patiently outside the changing room. _

_That was when I saw the weird guy that was staring at me in the first store we were at. He was looking me strait in the eye, and was walking right at me, a blazing look in his eyes. Something told me they were not entirely human._

I immediately stood in a defensive position, and tried to look intimidating. The guy didn't look at all hesitant, and still was making his way confidently towards me. Strutting as if he owned the place. I don't know what prompted me to do so, but I knew I would probably need Fang's help to make this guy go away. Maybe it was the way the guy's eyes looked almost like they had the reflection of fire in his pupils. It added a threatening touch to his already muscular appearance.

"Fang, hurry up and get back in your clothes. We've got company." I told Fang.

Behind the door I heard the rustling of clothing and heard a "Who is it? Max?" from Fang. I didn't answer him.

The guy was halfway across the store now; he would be able to touch me in 5 seconds. "Fang hurry up." I hissed at him. Something about this guy just freaked me out. He looked human, but something about his eyes told me differently. I sized him up, and he looked pretty tall, maybe around my height. Fang would tower over him though.

"I'm almost done." Fang said hurriedly. The guy was 5 yards away, 4 yards, 3 yards, 2 yards, 1 yard away.

"What do you want?" I growled at him in my most scary voice. He didn't recoil from the hostility dripping from my voice; he didn't even seem to notice at all.

"Dear, dear, Max. What do you think I want?" The guy said in a deathly silky voice. I was about to respond sarcastically to that, but I just realized that he knew my name. I had never even seen this guy before today.

"How do you know my name!" I fired at him.

"Max, don't you know? You're quite famous. Especially where I come from." The stranger said smoothly.

That was when Fang burst out of the changing room, fully dressed. Fang saw me and copied my defensive position. He stepped slightly in front of me, in a protective state. _Did he think I couldn't defend for myself? _Fang put on a fierce face that would make any full grown man run away, he looked truly terrifying.

"Who are you, and what the hell do you want?" Fang demanded the guy. His voice was dripping with venom and hostility. Something I could never pull off quite as good as him.

The guy chose to answer one of Fang's questions. "The names Conner, dipstick." The guy said snidely. He raised an eyebrow, and looked expectantly at Fang.

"Go the hell away, she's mine." Fang spat. I spun my head to the side to face him, I'm pretty sure my mouth hung open for a second. The good thing was, I don't think Fang noticed.

"Well that's too bad, Fang. You don't really have an option." Conner said in a sick cheery voice. "We need Max. It's only for a couple weeks. We will take her, and she won't be harmed in the slightest. She'll be back before you know it." Conner said.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. You are not taking Max; I will kill you before I let you take her. Where the hell were you planning to take her anyways." Fang said fiercely.

"Fang, Fang. Do you not remember me?" Conner said, shaking his head. Fang just stared at him blankly. "You don't remember me. I have to say Fang, I'm hurt. Don't you remember?" Another long silence. "Well maybe this will jog your memory. We were school buddies." Conner said. I watched as Fang's face turned to shock (in Fang terms… which means barely noticeable), as realization hit him. He knew this guy.

"There you go, you finally recognize me. I guess I've grown some, but it took you long enough. I guess I never told you my real name. It's Conner, But you know me as Scorch." Scorch/Conner said.

Fang shook off the shock, and replaced it with confusion and I thought I could sense happiness. "Fang, you know this guy?" I asked him. He didn't respond, there was a small silence were Fang seemed at loss for words, and Scorch had on a smug smile.

"Dude, you're alive? I thought the white coats killed you." Fang said in a confused/excited tone (well for him.).

"I'm alive, obviously. They moved me to a different room." Scorch said with no-duh just dripping from his voice.

_Ok, seriously! I'm confused. How did Fang know this guy, and why is Fang almost happy to see him? This guy stalked us around the mall and said he had to take me somewhere. I knew that somewhere was a place I didn't want to be in._

"What is going on? Fang?" I asked Fang, finally losing patience. I was going to get answers, and I would get them soon.

Fang finally looked away from Scorch, and looked at me, considering if he was going to tell me. "Max, it's a long story…" Fang said.

"Well, we've got time if this guy is your friend." I said, raising my eyebrows at Scorch. "But I don't trust him." I added. Fang made up his mind.

"Fine. I'll tell you the story." Fang said.

**I know this one is shorter then the rest. I was going to continue this chapter, but it just kept on going, and going, and going! Next chapter will be really long!**


	10. Shadows

This one is longer then the others, thanks for waiting, I had a couple last minute changes to make

**This one is longer then the others, thanks for waiting, I had a couple last minute changes to make. To tell you the truth, I hated MR4. So I refuse to add any of the stuff that happened in the 4****th**** to my fic. Was it me, or did Fang seem REALLY OOC in the 4th?**

Chapter 10: Shadows

"_What is going on! Fang?" I asked Fang, finally losing patience. I was going to get answers, and I would get them soon. _

_Fang finally looked away from Scorch, and looked at me, considering if he was going to tell me. _

"_Max, it's a long story…" Fang said. _

"_Well, we've got time if this guy is your friend." I said, raising my eyebrows at Scorch. "But I don't trust him." I added. _

_Fang finally made up his mind. "Fine. I'll tell you the story." Fang said. _

Fang's POV

I thought quickly were I was going to start this. I guess I'll start this from were I got captured. I cleared my throat, and told her the entire story.

_**Flashback**_

_**3 years back**_

_Well here goes #15. 15 Itex plants successfully destroyed. This is some kind of an anniversary. Go me. _

I ran through the mental checklist I had stuck permanently into my head_. I've done this 15 times, all had been very easy, what's different about this time?_

_Break in, use shadow to advantage._

_Stalk around the halls._

_Check to make sure there are no other large masses of mutants worth saving. If there is, find a smart leader to get them out of there. _

_Give the leader the following instructions: Call ( 949) 745-8451 as soon as the coast is clear. They will ask for a password, it's Shadow. Follow the instructions the person on the phone tells them. She can be trusted._

_Find the building's parking lot, or anything else that has flammable fuel. _

_Light match, catch fuel on fire._

_Cover ears, and prepare for explosion while flying like hell._

_Barely escape with your life._

_Find a tree to take a breather, and plan where you will go next._

_Ok, Fang. Showtime, here comes a whitecoat heading up to the door…_

Oh wait. I never told you. Do you wonder about the whole step 1, the "use shadow to advantage," Part? Well… I got a new power. And it fit my personality quite fittingly.

I can hide in the shadows; literally. I basically am the shadow when I go into shadow form. I can take the shape and form of any shadow that belongs to something, like a white coat's shadow for instance. When I find a desired shadow, I stare at it and consentrate. Then I become part of it. I am the shadow. I move exactly like any other shadow would, without any thought. It's weird being 2-D.

That's my secret. The reason I have been able to sneak in so easily. I have been hiding in a white coat's shadow that's entering an Itex plant mostly. Sometimes I will take the form of a vehicle's shadow as they drive into a desired place. One time I hid in the shadow of a bird flying over an Itex school.

When I enter the shadow of someone or something, I basically am along for the ride, until I chose to exit. It's so easy to just hang out in shadow form, I could even fall asleep. Actually I did do that once… but it wasn't on a mission.

The hard part is, going into someone's shadow without them noticing. You have to be within 4 feet to be able to morph into someone's shadow. To get within 4 feet of someone without them noticing is pretty dang hard, even for me. You can't move from shadow to shadow, you have to be in human form before you morph. You have to have a clear view of a shadow, or it just doesn't work.

That's what made things so hard, I'm not a freaking mouse that no one sees. If you think that a freakishly tall, muscular mutant, that towers over you, is not noticeable, then you need a reality check. 'Cuz I stick out really badly.

Well, one way or another, I'd manage. I had done this 15 times, and I could do it again. My main goal was to cripple Itex as much as I could. But If I found any mutants, I always tried to get them out before I blew up the place.

I sent them to my friend, another mutant just like me, 98 human 2 bird. Her name is Mandi. She is a lot like me, quiet, shy, a shadow come to life. But more importantly she was a lot like Max. Just seeing her made my heart ache for Max, but I would never cave and try to find her. I needed to destroy Itex first. Then, somehow, I would find Max and the flock, maybe Mandi could live with us.

I first met Mandi when the flock and I broke into the institute, the night Max "killed" Ari. While Max was fighting with Ari; Me, Mandi, and the flock lead all of the mutants out of there. I told her we would need to wait for Max to continue. She wouldn't do it, and was desperate to get out of the dark underground. (I was too, but I needed to wait for Max.) Before she moved out, I asked her what her name was. "Mandi." Was the only word she said to me. But somehow, I knew that the mutants were safe in her hands. I would see her again, later in my life. But that's not important right now. I need to get back to how I met Conner.

I planned where the whitecoat was walking to, so I sunk into the shadows of a tree nearby. (not literally.) The positive to wearing so much dark clothes is that it's so hard to see me in the shadows. I crept up to the white coat, and out of the safety of darkness. That was when it happened.

An alarm sounded, followed by red flashing lights on the outside of the school. The white coat whipped around, looking for the intruder. He saw me, his eyes widened, and he gasped. He didn't know who I was, but he knew I wasn't a friend. I was about to knock him out and run, when I felt something pierce the skin in my neck.

Within two seconds I felt loopy, and reached my hand up to feel there was a dart sticking in my neck. My instincts told me to pull it out and run, that I should be afraid, but I ignored it. I pulled it out and laughed at the dart like it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I remember losing my balance and falling, then after that, everything just went blank.

I woke up laying facedown in a dog crate. I groaned and rolled over on my back, taking in were I was. I knew it was the school, but the question is, where in it? I sat up so I was sitting down with my back against the side of the crate.

_What just happened…all I remember is that I got hit from behind. _My muscles felt really weak, like rubber. Not because it hurt, but because they felt wimpy and useless. I checked myself to make sure I didn't have anything to be worried about. I found nothing but a couple bruises from the last couple of missions. _Must be one of the after effects of those darts… _I thought.

I shivered, and gathered my clothes around me as best I could. It was really cold in here. _Were exactly is here anyways?_ I looked around and saw dozens of other cages, and various other mutants. None of which looked like failures. They all looked fairly healthy, if you dismissed the bruises and cuts. In fact, they all looked like they would be a challenge if we were to be in a fight.

Across from me there was a guy that was rocking back and forth on his back, moaning. He was defiantly in pain, and it looked like he had been crying. His strawberry blonde hair was matted and dirty, and his dark eyes shone strangely. They looked like they were reflecting the light coming off a wildfire.

_I wonder what mix he is? I thought. He almost looks normal, except for his eyes. They look different._

The male continued moaning, and I felt bad for him and all, but I was getting really annoyed with the noise he was making.

I took off my jacket, and used it as a pillow, and I tried to sleep. I could always just morph into the shadow of something outside, but my shadow ability was my edge. The one thing that no one else knew about, it was the way I sneaked in all of those plants. I couldn't risk anyone finding that out. If they did, I would have a hard time figuring out how to sneak in. I would find a way out another way.

I gave up using my jacket as a pillow, and put it back on. It was seriously freezing in here.

I closed my eyes. If I was going to get out, I would need rest. To tell you the truth, I wasn't worried at all. I knew I would get out soon. If not, Mandi would figure out I got captured after I hadn't contacted her in two weeks. And if the whitecoats decided to kill me, I would just go into shadow form before they could do anything. I was covered, but I wasn't particularly thrilled about being here. But it would be useful to have me inside this place, maybe get some information.

I was about to drift asleep, when a piercing male scream filled the air. I stood up quickly, almost banging my head on the top of my cage. I saw right away who was screaming. It was the guy right across from me. I didn't blame him for screaming at all.

The guy was completely on fire.

_How the hell did that happen? People don't just burst into flames magically! _I was wondering whether I should go into shadow form and get him help, but decided against it. It would ruin my entire edge.

The door opened and a whitecoat ran into the room. "Oh my god! It actually worked!" the whitecoat exclaimed. _Why was he excited about a mutant bursting into flames! Wouldn't that be a bad thing? _

He scurried out of the room yelling "Jane, Jane! Come here! It works! Experiment 003456 works! He can actually catch himself on fire!! It actually worked!" I looked in astonishment at Scorch right across from me. He was still on fire, but he didn't look in pain at all, he just looked shocked.

I starred at him in amazement and decided to let a little emotion out. "Dude, that's cool." I informed him almost jealously. I'm pretty sure he smiled; it's kind of hard to tell through flames.

"Yeah well, right now I'm not really paying attention to how cool I look. I'm just trying to figure out how I caught myself on fire. I remember this painful tingling sensation, then bam." He said, examining his fingers and arm.

"Jane! Jane! Look! See! I did it! It actually worked! That is amazing!" The first whitecoat exclaimed. He ran down the isle, pulling another female by the arm. They stood in front of "experiment 003456's" cage, and blocked my view.

The woman whitecoat gasped, obliviously seeing fireboy. "We have to do some tests on it! Imagine the capabilities it has! The things it could do!" She cried, rubbing her hands together. _Optimistic little bugger. _I thought snidely.

The whitecoats continued talking excitedly to each other. I lost interest, so I leaned up against the side of my cage. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to go to sleep, but couldn't because the whitecoats were talking too loud. After a while, one of them ran off, and returned with a set of keys.

They then made a big show of trying to get fireboy out of the cage without burning themselves. They weren't the sharpest tools in the shed I guess you could say.

I couldn't suppress a snigger when the guy whitecoat caught a sleeve on fire. Thus began an even bigger show of him running up and down the halls with a sleeve on fire, shrieking like a girl. The whitecoat named Jane finally put the sleeve's fire out. I caught a glimpse of fireboy laughing his head off at the two whitecoats. I gave him a very small (barely noticeable) smile and a look that said whitecoats-are-freaking-idiots. He understood, and smiled with me.

Finally the white coats left, deciding maybe they shouldn't pick something up that's on fire. Took them long enough. "Way to piss the whitecoats off. Good job." I told him honestly.

The guy looked pretty thrilled with himself, but he shrugged modestly. "I'm just glad that whitecoat got what he deserved." He said while wearing a grin. All of the sudden, the fire that covered him just stopped coming.

"Awwe man! I hoped that would stay longer. I wasn't cold when I was on fire." The guy mumbled.

I exchanged a glance with him, and without saying anything, he seemed to understand what I was saying. We both sighed, and there was a two minute silence.

"By the way, my name's Scorch." Scorch said, breaking the silence.

"Fang." I said in return. I sighed and leaned against the back of my cage, he did the same. We could both still see each others face.

"So I guess this makes us school buddies." Scorch said.

_**End Flashback.**_

I told Max everything. The shadow part, Mandi, The dart, Scorch and his ability, all that stuff. When I was done, Max looked stunned.

Max's POV

_Wait, this guy can catch on fire? And it didn't hurt. That's really weird. _

_And Fang. Fang could literally hide in the shadows. That one fit him nicely. He must have hid in the shadows this morning when he snuck up on me. He didn't come from the hallway after all! I wasn't deaf!_

"So, you two met in the school?" I asked him calmly.

"Not the one in California, but a school. Yeah." Fang responded.

"And you guys are friends?"

Fang looked at Scorch, and he looked back. "Well, we were. But it looks like he went to the dark side." Fang said, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Dude, don't blame me. They forced me to. I have come to find that the dark side is a lot more enjoyable then the good side." Scorch said. His eye was twitching slightly, and seemed to be trying to communicate silently with me. I bet it was my paranoid imagination.

"Look Fang, you got 24 hours. Either you hand Max over peacefully, or we take her forcefully. Your decision, but I would do the first choice if I were you." Scorch said. He placed his right hand inconspicuously on his right leg, and crossed his fingers. He shot us a meaningful glance, and turned to walk away.

When he had taken two steps, he stopped. While his back was still facing us, he said in a flirty tone "Oh, and Maxie…" He turned his body slightly, so we could see he had an expression that would suit someone who was full-on flirting. It disappeared right when he was directly facing us, and changed to a wide-eyed terrified boy's distress call. He mouthed "Help me," He put on a smug face as he turned back around, and stalked out of the room.

Scorch was obviously in trouble, major trouble.

But nothing compared to the trouble we were in right now.

**I love ending chapters in a dramatic fashion. I have been tortured by many TV shows doing that, so I have learned the art of it, so now I can torture you guys. Yey for you!!**


	11. Charades and a Surprise

Chapter 11: Charades and a Surprise

"Fang, lets go. This place is probably crawling with erasers and whitecoats. If Scorch is their little messenger, they must be near." I told Fang, trying to drag him out of the store. He cooperated, and we made it to the parking lot without a fight breaking out. I put Fang's bags in the trunk, and went to the driver's side. We stepped into my car, and I drove out of the parking lot.

Throughout the entire ride, it was silent. Fang looked like he was thinking deeply about something.

Fang's POV

_How could he? We were best buds in the school. I guess it goes to show, that you can't trust anybody but your family. We watched each others back. At least until the day when Scorch got taken. That day sucked._

_**Flashback**_

The whitecoats dumped us roughly into our cages. Scorch and I were both drenched in sweat, and we were both still breathing heavily. I had a few burns, but Scorch looked pretty bad. He was extremely tired after the tests the whitecoats had put him through, and he had a couple cuts.

The whitecoats were running various tests on him, but I was only with him a part of the way. They had him run on a treadmill for a while, to see how fast he could run. They had gotten amazing results; he could run a 3.3-minute mile, and run two miles in 7.5 minutes. I was doing endurance tests and was on my 2nd mile, when they dragged him off the treadmill. They took him to a different room, and all I heard was a few muffled screams every couple minutes. After they were done with me, I was dumped into my cage, and he followed right behind me.

Scorch's head slumped so it was resting on his chest. He was limply sitting in the back of his cage, still out cold.

_I wonder what they did to him. They wouldn't do anything to damage him permanently. We were too special to be crippled in any way. I, and everyone else in this room, was filed under the "promising specimens." We were the future erasers basically, the minions that might be worthwhile to duplicate._

I found that staying was actually good. I was gaining a lot of information that would help me on future missions. As helpful as it was to be here, I really was getting creeped out by this place. I didn't want to stay here long enough for them to figure out what to do with me. If all went as planned, and the whitecoats did their usual 9:00 lock up, then the other experiments and I would blow this pop stand tonight.

Scorch twitched in his sleep, and slumped farther forwards. A pained expression appeared in his face, but he was too far asleep to wake up from it. Hopefully he would be up for the escape tonight. We needed to be prepared, and we couldn't screw up the element of surprise.

I planned to do it during closing time, because there were less whitecoats around. The less whitecoats around, the easier my plan would be.

I planned to go into the shadow of Scorch's cage, which was out of the view of the camera in the corner. I would then exit the shadow, staying in the cover of his cage, still blocked from the camera's view. I would unlatch his cage, and he would be free. Scorch would burst out of his cage, run up to the camera, and set fire to it. We would then have a 5 minute head start to get away. Until the whitecoats figured out what had happened, and called the erasers on us.

Throughout the entire process, I would never be seen.

I would take a shadow back into my cage, so it looked like Scorch's cage just opened somehow on its own. He would open my cage, and we would then do the usual. Let the other mutants out, blow up the place. Same old, same old.

You have no idea how much I would like to just screw the plan, and kick every whitecoats ass all on my own. If I did that, they would find out about my shadow ability. If they found out about my shadow ability, I would be screwed.

I was stuck with some organized and overcomplicated plan.

"Scorch!" I hissed quietly. I didn't want any whitecoat outside to hear me, even though that was highly unlikely.

He didn't move, or show any sign he heard me. "Scorch!" I hissed again. No response.

Oh, crap. If he didn't wake up, I would be forced to stay another night. I really didn't want that to happen.

The door opened, and a whitecoat came into view. He was carrying a blanket, and was followed by 3 erasers and a second whitecoat.

"This is it, Experiment 003456. The fire-being." The first whitecoat said.

"Excellent. He isn't all he has cracked up to be. Although, he almost looks entirely human. Too bad the eyes are just too hard to deal with. They always give a mutant way." The second whitecoat said.

He pulled out a set of keys, and handed it to an eraser. "You know what to do." The second said. He apparently was the boss.

The erasers opened up Scorch's cage, and picked up Scorch's limp form. I stood up quickly and snarled at the whitcoat's back. I was prepared to do anything to make them not take Scorch. He was the closest thing I had to a buddy in this place. He was going to help me get out of here, he was a good guy.

The whitcoat heard my snarl, "Now, to deal with this one." The boss whitecoat said. He turned to face me. "I knew you two grew close. Relationship is weakness, and weakness is not welcome here. So we will dispose of the weakness, so you can work for us. Face it Fang, our side is stronger. All we have to do is prove it to you. You will gladly be one of us soon."

"They day I join you guys is the day I start wearing pink. Meaning, it ain't gonna happen." I snarled at him, shooting him my worst glare.

He stared back calmly at me. "Fang, you will come to, very soon. Just you wait," the boss said, sounding pretty dang creepy.

He motioned to the other whitcoat, and he stepped up, holding the blanket. Realization hit me and I knew what he was going to do. I couldn't believe it. I rushed towards the front of the cage, and focused my hardest on a shadow outside. It was too late.

He placed the blanket so it covered my cage. I couldn't see through the material. So I couldn't see the shadows outside. I need to see the shadow before I could morph into it. So I was trapped, and I was screwed.

"Do you think we are total idiots? We have known about your ability ever since you came here, and a little before that. We are a lot smarter than you think we are," the boss said. "For now on, you're our little pawn. You best behave, or you won't like the consequences. We are stronger than you, Fang, so you should just give up. You've lost." The boss whitecoat said.

I pressed myself against the front of my bars, scratching at the material; hoping to make a hole in it.

You should give up. That material is so strong, that even you can't break through it. We call it metal threads. Now you enjoy the rest of the day, because tomorrow will not be pleasant."

I heard 5 pairs of footsteps begin to walk away, taking Scorch with them. "Scorch!" I yelled, hoping he would wake up. They were going to kill him, and it would be all my fault.

"Wha…" I heard from a drowsy Scorch. He was still half unconscious, and I knew he wouldn't be able to fight them off. The door slammed, and it became unusually quite in the room. I sunk to the ground, knowing I couldn't do anything.

They had taken my ticket out of here, they had taken my freedom, and they had taken my friend.

_**End Flashback**_

"Fang… we're home…" Came Max's voice.

"Yeah, 'kay." I mumbled to her.

She slammed the car door, and I was finally alone. I looked down at my seatbelt, and stared for a while. I must have been out of it for 10 minutes, so I stopped thinking about Scorch, and snapped out of it. I undid my buckle, and stepped out of the car.

Max was already inside, and she forgot to get the bags. I guess we would get them later. I walked inside, and saw Max sitting in a armchair in the living room. The rest of the flock was gathered around her on two other couches. By the look of seriousness on each face, I knew Max had already told them.

I quietly sat down in the armchair next to Max, guessing that they wanted to talk. We were facing the flock, and I looked in turn at everyone's worried face.

Max's POV

I turned off the car, and pulled the key out of the ignition. Fang was still spacing, most likely deep in thought. The car ride home had been silent, and I knew that Fang was confused. I would be be... if my best friend came back and he had gone to the evil side.

I felt bad for Fang, but we needed to get some answers from him, and it needed to be within the day. We either needed to be gone by the time Scorch showed up, or we needed to be prepared.

"Fang… we're home…" I told him softly.

His eyes became more focused and he mumbled "Yeah, 'kay."

I slammed the car door, and allowed him to be alone. I walked inside, to see the flock playing charades.

Gazzy was acting, and the flock was guessing. Angel wasn't allowed to read people's minds, and she was sending Iggy mental pictures so he could play too. Gazzy flailed his arms rapidly, as if he on major sugar rush or something. "Someone running down the street naked! A person on fire! Squirrels attacking a hiker! A rabies infected animal! A pigeon!" They all yelled randomly. Gazzy pointed to Nudge, who had guessed a pigeon. He put his hands close to each other, to show she was close.

He resumed flailing his arms, and the flock began guessing again. "Sparrow! Toucan! Lovebirds!"

Gazzy slapped his forehead, and rolled his eyes.

"Mrs. Figgets!!" Nudge yelled suddenly. Everyone stared at her, and inwardly questioned her sanity. "Sorry, random thought…" she said sheepishly.

The flock resumed guessing a bunch or random bird names. Gazzy looked really annoyed, and all the sudden, he burst his wings out of his back, and flew in midair. Both wings got very close to the walls, and he stared at the flock. If they didn't get that one right, I would be very concerned for them. "FLYING!" They all burst out at the same time.

"God! Finally!!" Gazzy said, exasperated. "You guys suck at charades."

"You suck at acting!" Angel burst out. "That's the easiest thing to act out, considering we can freaking fly."

"Well I didn't want to make it totally obvious! If I actually flew in the beginning that kinda would have been a stupid turn." Gazzy said defensively.

The flock began arguing, and it started getting a little rough. Iggy had Gazzy in a headlock, and Angel and Nudge were arguing with each other.

"Guys! Guys! Break it up!" I yelled standing between Gazzy and Iggy.

This is why you never played a game, that you could win, with a bunch of high strung bird kids.

"You guys can do some sparring later. We need to talk." The room quieted down, and Nudge looked around.

"Where's Fang?" She asked.

"He's still in the car. He needs some time alone." I told the flock.

"Max, what happened? If you guys are mad at each other again, I swear, I will lock you two up in a room together. Beca-" I interrupted Iggy.

"We are not fighting. Something has come up." The flock's faces changed to worried expressions. I sat myself down on my favorite armchair, and the flock sat on two couches.

"What happened?" Iggy asked.

"If I truly knew, I would tell you. All I know is that some bizarro guy, who apparently was Fang's friend, is trying to get me to come with him." I explained. The flock didn't seem to know how to react. "You know, to the school. Or something…" I mumbled.

The door opened, and Fang came in. The flock turned their face to Fang, and he quietly sat down in the armchair next to me. I instantly wondered exactly what Fang looked like when he was in shadow form. I pushed the thought out of my head, I would ask him later.

"Fang? What's all this about?" Iggy asked.

"Look guys. I don't know." Fang mumbled. He was hiding something, and we all knew it.

"Angel?" I implied. She nodded, and a look of concentration came on her face. She was reading his mind.

"Nothing. He won't let me in." She said.

Sometimes Fang can be so dang stubborn. "Fang, whatever you are hiding, we need to know about it. You can't hide it forever." I pressed.

He ignored me, and appeared to be thinking deeply. He appeared to decide on something, and began to speak.

"I don't really know what is going on. All I know, is that Scorch got taken away 3 years ago. I thought he was dead. I also know, that good people like him, don't just suddenly decide to go to the dark side. They are forced there. And that's exactly the situation Scorch is in." Fang said. That was just about the most he had said, at one time, to the entire flock.

"Look, I don't know exactly what the entire situation is with Scorch, but for them to make him play along, he must be pretty screwed. All I know is that Scorch is in trouble, and we have to help him. But first, we have to help ourselves." Fang said. He looked up at us, starring each of us in the eye at turn.

Fang stood up and said seriously, "Be down and ready in 10. Bring as much food as you can carry. We're running. And I know just where we are going to go."

**Please people, I know you are all capable of pressing the freakishly colored button! Just touch it! It beeeeeecons you! Even if you are not a Fan Fic member, you can still review! Any review is greatly appreciated!**


	12. Mini Fang

Chapter 12: Mini Fang

Chapter 12: Mini Fang

"_Look, I don't know exactly what the entire situation is with Scorch, but for them to make him play along, he must be pretty screwed. All I know is that Scorch is in trouble, and we have to help him. But first, we have to help ourselves." Fang said. He looked up at us, starring each of us in the eye at turn._

_Fang stood up and said seriously, "Be down and ready in 10. Bring as much food as you can carry. We're running. And I know just where we are going to go."_

With that, he walked into the garage, and the door shut quietly.

_Since when did he call the shots? Aren't I supposed to be the leader? _

_I'm going to clear this up with Fang later, but right now, he seems to know what he is doing. I don't really like the idea of running away though. But Fang thinks it __is for the best, and I suppose I should probably trust him. After all, he obviously knows more than __we do._

I snapped out of it to see the flock looking at me, to see how they should react. "Well guys? Didn't you hear him? 10 minutes, be down here."

That was all they needed, and they all scurried off to go collect their packs. I went into the kitchen, and collected all of the light food that didn't need to be refrigerated. I set down all of the food on the counter, and I separated some to put in my pack.

I ran upstairs, and gathered up enough clothes to last me a week. Of course I remembered my shoes and my favorite windbreaker. In the other room I heard Nudge opening up her dresser, and gathering the stuff she needed.

I ran out of my doorway, and collided into Iggy in the hallway. "Sorry Ig." I said, sidestepping out of the way. I ran down the stairs, and heard Iggy mutter something under his breath. Probably some sarcastic remark.

"Food is on the kitchen counter! Gather what you can carry!" I yelled from the bottom.

I filled my backpack with as much food as I could carry, and I put on my windbreaker. Angel came into the kitchen, and she began to fill up her sack with the food that was on the counter.

I walked briskly out of the kitchen, with my pack slung over my right shoulder. "Don't forget Total." I told Angel over my shoulder.

Yes, Total is still alive and well. We found out that he has a very small fraction of human DNA in him, so that allows him to speak, and have a decent lifespan. He met a stray purebred dog on the street (how often does that happen??) , her name is Akila. They fell in puppy love, and Total is a daddy to three puppies now.

They all live in the backyard in this amazing and huge dog house. (For God sake, don't tell Total that he is living in a dog house!) Everything is dog sized, like a normal house, only made for dogs. Of course, everything is voice activated because they don't have fingers. (We spoiled those little guys, but who could resist those adorable little faces?)

The puppies all have very distinct personalities. Little Lucy is always happy, and is the most caring. Her personality resembles Angel's.

Boone is the Mutt. He is the bravest, but not the smartest. All brawn, no brain. Boone loves adventure, and constantly got himself into situations that he always gets out of.

The last puppy, the most quiet and antisocial, was hard to find a name for. He always stayed away from the other puppies, and played with them rarely. Nudge ended up cracking a joke about how much he seemed like Fang. (I ended up excusing myself to go cry in my room for a few minutes…) Thus, we named the last puppy Fang. Fang was my favorite puppy, and he preferred to sleep with me. He kept me company when I cried about Fang. He filled in that gap that Fang left me with. He was my mini Fang.

Total's puppies could speak, and Total was trying to get them to say something coherent. They still babbled like six year olds did. Although, Mini Fang was very clear at speaking. Well, at least when he did speak.

Like Total, they could talk like a human, and bark like a dog. I guess they could speak two languages then. Akila could not speak human, but Total could always translate for her.

So, Total lives in their cozy little house, with kids and a loving wife. What more could he ask for?

At the moment, Total and his family were on a little vacation. They were camping in a nearby forest, and were due to come home today. We had a dog whistle that the dogs could hear from far distances. We only used it in case of emergency, so they would be sure to come quick.

I grabbed the whistle from its hook, and pressed it into Angel's hand. I don't know what we were planning to do with the dogs, after all, only Mini Fang could fly.

Oh, yeah. Forgot to tell you. Mini Fang can fly. Only him, not any other dog. Total had very small bones that resembled the ones that held our wings on our back, but no wings came out of them. I guess Mini Fang is special.

He can't fly very far, but he could go for about 10 minutes. We always had fun flying together, walking along the beach, playing fetch in the ocean. Just like a normal person does with his dog, 'cept normal people don't gots wings.

I went into the garage, and saw Fang starring at a feather on the garage wall. It was in a frame, and was lit up by tiny lights inside the glass. I walked slowly up to him, and stopped behind his right shoulder.

"This is… one of mine." Fang said slowly. He turned around to face me. "You kept it all these years?" He asked me.

"Yeah." I said slowly. Fang gave me a look that said "Why??"

"I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. It was a piece of you" I said, without thinking.

I instantly regretted saying that. I expected Fang to get all smug, and pull the "You love me this much" thing. Instead, Fang's expression was impassive. He starred directly into my eyes, and his gaze softened. The next thing I knew, our lips were touching. I went with the flow, and the kiss lasted for 2 more seconds. I had to force myself to pull away.

"I, uh… we should do this later." I said, a little dazed.

Without waiting for Fang's reaction, I turned around and walked out of the room.

Fang's POV:

_Oh, crap… what just happened?_

Max's POV:

I gathered around the flock, all waiting in the kitchen. I shook my head, and tried to clear my mind of confusing thoughts.

"Alright guys, do you have everything?" I asked.

"Well, almost. The dogs aren't home yet." Angel said. I nodded, they should be home soon. Right then, the puppies came bounding out of the forest.

They ran strait at the glass door, and screeched to a halt. Boone smashed into the glass, and Mini Fang let his wings out and hovered a few feet off the ground.

"What the…" Fang muttered at the sight of him.

Mini Fang barked furiously at Fang. _Oh, my ferocious little guard dog. _I motioned for him to go down, and he obeyed.

"Well, at least this Fang always does what I tell him to do." I sighed. I opened up the glass door, and Mini Fang bounded up to Fang. He sniffed him, and growled. "It's ok Nick, it's Fang. You know, long lost Fang." (Oh, and Mini Fang goes by Nick as well.)

"Why do you have 3 puppies in your house, Max?" Fang asked.

"Because, they are Total's puppies." I answered slowly, as if he were too stupid to comprehend this.

"Total is still alive?" Fang asked, bending down to pet Lucy. Lucy smiled, and wagged her tail to show she was happy.

"Obviously…" I answered sarcastically. "This is Boone, Lucy, and Mini Fang." I gestured at each of the puppies in turn.

"You named a puppy after me? Why?" Fang said, reaching out to pet Mini Fang. Mini Fang sniffed Fang's hand, and promptly chomped down on it. "What the…! What is his problem!?" Fang said, yanking his hand away. Mini Fang looked intensely satisfied. I shot him a glare, and his doggie smile faded.

"Well for one, he is identical to you in personality. Two, as you probably noticed, he has a pretty good set of teeth." I said, smirking.

"Joy." Fang said sarcastically. "I think I'll call him mini-me."

"Yeah, I think I'll call you birdboy." Mini Fang said.

Fang stepped back in shock. "Holy, craaaaaa-b. One talking dog was bad enough! Can they all…"

"Talk?" Lucy finished for him.

"Of course." Boone nodded in agreement.

I looked over at Fang's face, and saw he needed a moment to get over this piece of information.

Then Total and Akila ran out of the forest, and ran inside.

"Is that… Fang?" Total asked slowly.

"Hey Total.." Fang nodded.

Total became ecstatic, jumped up, and licked Fang's face. "You're back!!" He yelled excitedly.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too." Fang said.

"Oh, it's so good to see you… what happened to your hand?" Total asked, noticing the punctured skin.

"Fang bit me." Fang said simply. Mini Fang smiled smugly, and Total frowned at him.

Right then, the doorbell rung. "I'll get it." I said. I turned at walked to the front door. I opened it and saw a breathless Scorch leaning against the doorframe, breathing fast.

"They are coming. Right now!" he yelled.

"Whoa, whoa. We've still got 23 hours!" I said. Scorch looked like he was about to faint.

"Well, I lied. Didn't you hear me? They are coming. Right now!" He yelled again.

Just then, a dart came from nowhere, and entered the skin in his neck. Scorch fell heavily in the doorway, and three more darts came and hit the wall behind me.

"RUN!" I yelled in the house.

"Max? What's going on?" Fang questioned from the other room.

"RUN!" I repeated. "Someone carry the puppies! Go through the back! Hurry!"

I turned around and sprinted towards the back. I screeched to a halt, hesitated, and dragged Scorch with me. I slammed the door, and ran to where the flock was.

"Fang, Ig, help me!" I said urgently. They rushed up to me, and helped me carry Scorch. I pulled the dart out of his neck, and threw it on the ground. The puppies were in Nudge, Angel, and Fang's pack.

Fang opened up the door, and we took off into the sky. I only had a few minutes to enjoy the sensation of flying, when something unwelcome showed up.

_**Calm down Max. They are not following you. **_

_Well, well, well. Long time, no annoy Jeb. So what have you been up to? _I said in a falsely bright tone.

_**Max, I'm sure you don't trust me, but you have to listen to me. Wherever Fang tells you to go, follow him.**_

_And why exactly should I do that, Jeb?_

_**I am not Jeb. Although he can use the voice. You know me, but I will not tell you who I am until I believe you are ready.**_

_God knows, I will wait patiently for you. Just stay away from me._

"Alright guys. We can calm down. They are not going to follow us. Little voice told me."

I said, tapping my forehead.

"Oh, so it's back." Gazzy said, sounding bored.

"Yup, I guess I'm crazy again." I sighed. "By the way Fang, were exactly are we going?"

Fang looked over at me, and said one simple, yet very surprising, word. "Mandi's."


	13. EMCF

**Happy Birthday Denad!!**

**This chapter is for you, enjoy!!**

* * *

Chapter 13: EMCF

"_By the way Fang, where exactly are we going?" _

_Fang looked over at me, and said one simple, yet very surprising, word. "Mandi's."_

"Mandi?" I repeated.

"Where else did you think we would go?" Fang said just loud enough for me to hear.

"Uh, I don't know. Just not there." I said. "Why don't we just go to my Mom's house? It's closer, and she has plenty of room for all of us," I suggested.

"Mandi can help us with Scorch." He said. Scorch was carried by the Iggy, Fang, and I, he was surprisingly light for his size. "Why do you not want to see her? She's cool, trust me." Fang said, and turned his face towards me. That was when I got a full blown look at him. The way his huge dark wings powerfully moved up and down, his hair whipping around his face, getting in his eyes, the way his eyes shone in the sun.

_Max! Stop! Bad! Look away. Look away. Friends. Just friends. Even though we kissed… _

_**More **__**than **__**friends.**_ Angels annoying voice chimed, cutting through my thoughts.

_Angel, not the time. Get out,_ I ordered in my head. I looked below at Angel, she had her innocent what-did-I-do look on.

_You know perfectly well what. Just get out, I need to think._

_**Just remember, Max. Fang looooooo-**_

_Angel! GET OUT!_ I snapped.

_**Testy…**_ Angel muttered in her head.

I sighed, and Fang looked over at me. "What?" He asked, peering sideways at me.

"Annoying voice in my head." I mumbled.

"Voice is back?" Fang asked.

"Nope. Just a little devil child." I said, shooting a glare down at Angel. She smiled innocently up at Fang, which didn't work so well, because she lost all of her cute when she was 9.

_Angel! You better not be sending him any of my thoughts!_

_**Max, why in the world would I do that?**_Her little not so-innocent-voice rung through my head, giving me a headache. Not the OMG-I'm-like-falling-out-of-the-sky one, more like the annoying ringing that comes from a CERTAIN SOMEONE that just won't leave you alone.

_Would. You. Get. Out. Of. My. Head? _I slowly said, making each word a sentence.

Angel didn't answer, so I guess I was voice-free for now. I shot her a threatening glare, warning her if she planned to say ANY of my thoughts to Fang, I would have to kill her. (I'm kidding. I think…)

I enjoyed the flight, looking down at the scenery. We had already left most of the civilization, and we were currently going over a few small mountains. I peeked a look at Fang, and I thought I caught Fang stealing a look at me.

I quickly averted my gaze in front of me, and tried to keep my thoughts off of Fang.

_Blissful silence. All of the flock together…evilness was free from my head…_

_**Fang thinks your hair looks hot flying around your face like that.**_ Angel informed me suddenly.

… _And barges right in without knocking…_ I thought wearily. _I was enjoying the scenery and you have to-_ _Wait. What did you say?_

_**Fang thinks that your hair looks pretty being blown in the wind like that.**_Angel repeated.

I swung my head to look at Fang, he looked horrified, and laughed nervously. He suddenly dived down at Angel. Me and Iggy now were struggling to carry the wieght of Scorch. She shrieked, and just barely escaped him. Our flocks' formation broke, and we all starred in enjoyment at Fang chasing after Angel.

They passed by us, and Angel yelled to me "And Fang also thinks you look cute when you are embarrassed!" Fang looked horrified at me, and returned his determined gaze to Angel, trying to hide his embarrassment. What he was planning to do with her when he caught her, I wasn't sure. But it sure was entertaining to watch them.

"You're digging your grave deeper Angel." I yelled out to her. "I suggest you shut up and fly for your life."

_**Or I'll join Fang and kill you… **_I thought threateningly. I don't think Angel had told Fang any of my secrets yet, that or Fang was really good at containing awkwardness.

"Guys! Settle down. You can beat each other up later. Someone help me carry Scorch" I yelled out to them. Mini Fang's face popped out of Angel's pack, and he didn't look so great. He jumped out, and his little baby wings flapped wildly to keep him afloat.

"I'm gonna be sick." He mumbled, flying over to me. "Gazzy, take Total. He's too heavy." I said, balancing Scorch long enough to hand Total to him.

"Hey!" Total said drowsily. He probably fell asleep in the comfort of my wind breaker. He settled in Gazzy's jacket and I sniggered at how his little face popped out of the neck. Gazzy scowled at me, and flew farther to the right of our formation.

"Guys, we need to land for a quick break. We need a plan, we have too much to carry." I said.

We all spotted a small clearing, and all of us landed. We braced Scorch against a tree, and we all sat down on some rocks, drinking water. The puppies raced around, barking at each other, playing tag.

"So," said Gazzy absentmindedly. "When do you think he'll wake up?" He nodded towards Scorch.

"Well, if it's like the dart I got shot with 3 years ago, then it should wear off soon. But I really think we should keep moving." Fang said.

"You sure are in a hurry, what's the rush?" I asked, I was starting to get suspicious, Fang never seemed to be in a rush.

"I just don't want to be in the forest at night. Especially with you guys."

"Why…" I persisted.

"Because the new erasers will get you, Max. They want your DNA. I don't know why, they just do."

I gaped at him with this new information. They wanted MY DNA. WHY??

"Look, lets just keep moving. Mandi's safe house is 100 miles to the west. We can make it there in an hour or so." Fang stood up, and screwed the lid back on his canteen.

The flock looked at me, to give them the official orders. _Good thing they know just who leads this flock._ "Alright guys. You heard him. Up and Away." They all groaned, and gathered up the dogs. Me, Fang, and Iggy were stuck carrying Scorch again. It was a very awkward take-off for the three of us (well four if you include Scorch).

The next 45 minutes were uneventful. Total and the puppies were asleep the entire time, Scorch hadn't stirred, and the flock was silent. I did catch Fang looking at me a few times, and I stole a few looks at him as well.

I looked down, and saw beautiful woods under us. It was pretty flat, but a little in the distance, you could see a cliff, with a small waterfall trickling down it. It was totally green and looked like a paradise.

"We're almost here, it's just beyond that lake." Fang said. We started getting lower and lower to the ground until Fang instructed us to land.

We touched down in a very small clearing, and there was a bunch of trees surrounding us. We were about half a mile away from the lake, and the stream feeding it was right beside us.

"Follow me. We need to be quiet." Fang whispered. Without questioning him, we followed him upstream for a ways, until he just stopped. It was very heavily wooded right here, and there was no way anybody from the sky could see us.

"We're here." Fang said.

"I'm sorry. I don't see it. Where exactly is the wonderful safe house you wanted us to go to so badly?" I looked around, seeing no trace of any building or shelter.

Fang didn't respond to my statement, instead he knocked seven times on a big redwood tree, pounded on it once, then knocked three times again. The tree sounded hallow.

"It's Fang. With friends." Fang said.

A muffled, yet strong voice came from behind the door. "Password?" An unseen peephole opened, and a brown eye peered through at us.

"Shadows" Fang said.

Several deadbolt locks could be heard being unlocked from behind, finally a tall girl opened up an unseen door that blended in with the tree bark perfectly. She was a shorter than me, but taller than Angel. She had brown hair, and brown eyes.

"Fang!" She greeted Fang eagerly, throwing her arms around him. Surprisingly, he didn't become the unbending stone as usual, he returned it slightly.

A wave of jealousy swept through me. _Max control it, they are friends. Fang is not your boyfriend. WE are just friends, best friends._

"Oh God, I'm so glad you're ok!" She said, pulling away. "And this must be Max." She said, shaking my hand. "I've heard a lot about you." She said, winking at me. I whipped around to look at Fang. What did he tell her about me! If it was about the Valium thing, I swear I would bang both of their heads together.

She noticed my reaction, and said quickly "of course I've heard nothing bad."

There was a long awkward silence that was broken by Mandi saying, "You guys should come in, the woods aren't safe." She ushered us in, and with a nod from Fang, I allowed it.

Turns out, the safe house was huge, it is entirely underground and built to withstand everything. I gaped at how well-furbished it was. "Like it? It's got 2 master bedrooms, 10 single bedrooms, 5 double bedrooms, and 3 big rooms that can hold up to 15 people. It's got 10 good private bathrooms, and a couple half bathrooms. Of course we have a bunch of random other rooms, and a huge kitchen. As you can tell, it's meant for masses. We are still trying to figure out how we can expand it more, in case of emergency."

"We call this place the EMCF, for Emergency Mutant Care Facility. There are 15 other bases around the world like ours, except they are a lot bigger then ours. The one in Australia is the biggest, and where most of the mutants go to live. Ours is small and normally just a temporary home for mutants until they move to a bigger base. We just care for any injuries until they get to full heath, and can make the journey to Washington's base, the second biggest base."

"They mostly get a private flight to another base, then they just live their life. Some mutants prefer to just check in every once and a while, and just live alone or in a group in the outside world. Especially escaped Erasers, they have a hard time trusting people, so they end up living in packs in a forest someplace." Mandi rambled.

Fang smiled slightly, and sat down on a comfy couch. Listening to the rest of Mandi's story. "The two permanent residents here are me and Jack. Jack is our main doctor, but he has taught me some of the basic surgeries and procedures. I mostly just deal with injured bones, and minor cuts. Jack deals with bullet wounds, serious cuts, mutants that go into a coma, and won't wake up, basically the stuff I can't handle with such little expertise. Anyways, Jack is part wolf, but isn't an eraser. He has all human parts, but has the incredible sense of smell, can run fast, and is a lot tougher than a normal human. He also has the internal instincts, the sense of direction. He is very skilled in surgery, and is a great doctor. Right now he is outside, collecting fruit, he should be back soon."

"Oh, and don't forget that you love each other." Fang chimed in. Mandy blushed slightly, and turned to glare at Fang.

"Not necessary." She commented. She frowned at him, and turned back to me. "I assume you and Fang will share a bedroom?" She asked, smiling a little.

"I uhh…" I stuttered.

"Yes." Fang said simply.

"By the way, what is wrong with your friend?" Mandy asked, frowning at Scorch lying on the couch.

"He just got shot with a dart." Fang said.

"Oh. I won't ask how that happened. I don't really want to know what stupid things you guys have been doing lately." She said, bending down to check his pulse. "He should be fine. I'll have Jack check on him later, right now he just needs to get the drug through his system. How long ago did it happen?"

"'Bout three hours ago." Fang said.

"That's a long time to be out, but normal for a powerful drug. If he is out for longer than six hours, then that is when we need to worry." She probed gently at his skull. "No concussion. That's good."

She looked at everyone in the flock, and saw how rundown each of us looked. "You guys need to rest. I'll watch after him. Just get some sleep." She smiled reassuringly at each of us.

Fang showed each of us our bedrooms, everyone got their own, except me and Fang shared. I definitely couldn't say I was disappointed with this arrangement, in fact, I don't think I could sleep without hearing Fang's deep even breathing before I drift off to sleep. I was addicted to it, even though I had only slept with him for one night. (You all know what I mean, let's be mature about it, and ignore your other thought.)

I knew I was addicted to Fang, and it felt so, so good.


	14. A Not So Funny Joke

**Hey people, last week was spring break, so I had a bunch of time on my hands. Guess what I did! Yup, because I have no life, and my friends were busy, I decided to write. Good for you, lame for me. Anyways... enjoy the chappie!**

Chapter 14: A Not-So-Funny Joke

"Well, morning there freckles." Fang's voice said mockingly from the foot of the bed.

"Wha…" I said sleepily, cracking an eye open.

I peered around, and saw that we were in a nice bedroom. It had white walls, and white carpet, but pretty much everything else was black, the dresser, bed, bed sheets, nightstand, lamp, rug, desk, chair, and computer. I could tell this room was made specially for Fang. There were a few colors in the room, but I won't go into boring details.

"Well, I just realized you got quite a bit more freckles in these 9 years, I guess that's what the Cali sun does to you." Fang said

"Shut up." I moaned sleepily. I turned onto my stomach, and tried to go back to sleep. If he planned to start calling me freckles, I would kill him… after I finished sleeping.

"Well freckles, sucks for you, get up. Breakfast." He said, attempting to pull me out of the bed by my arm.

"Don't wanna." I moaned into my pillow, grabbing onto the headboard.

"Whatever. We're eating without you." Fang said, finally giving up and walking out of the room.

I moaned and turned onto my stomach, my eyes fluttering open. Fang walked back into the room, turned on all of the blindingly bright lights, and walked back out, sticking out his tongue. I squinted and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I stood up, stretched, and slumped out of the room to the kitchen.

The flock was gathered around the table, eating breakfast. I saw someone new sitting at the table, who must have been Jack. He had brown hair, a scar covering the length of his left cheekbone, and brown eyes. He looked around my age, had a huge build, and looked around the same height as Fang. He was pretty intimidating just looking at him. He smiled at me, and said warmly "Hi Max, I'm Jack. Fang has told me so much about you."

"Hi." I said, somewhat shly.

"Come sit, we made breakfast for everyone." I walked to the kitchen, and piled up my plate with as much food as it could carry. I sat down between Fang and Angel, and began chowing down.

As usual, when we get real meals, we never talk much. Of course, we had gone 9 years getting plenty to eat, but we still never really got over hording as much as we can when we can get it. We had been starved way too many times to get over something like that, especially Fang, who had gone through 9 more years of hell while we were eating as much as we wanted.

"Oh, and your friend woke up last night, what was his name?" Mandi said.

"Conner." Fang said.

"Well, Conner woke up in the middle of the night, about 5 hours after getting shot. He was delirious, but I'm pretty sure that's normal. If only I had the dart he was shot with…" She trialed off. "Anyways, he's sleeping right now. Jack has been keeping a close watch on him, so he'll be fine after some bed rest." Mandi nodded.

The rest of the dinner was pretty quiet except I caught Mandi and Jack giving each other goo-goo eyes almost the entire breakfast. I almost wish that Fang and I were more open like that, that is, if Fang really liked me as much as I liked him. I doubt it, Fang barely has feelings.

Fang's POV

_Oh God, Max looks pretty even when she is stuffing her face…… … look away Fang, stop starring! Act casual…_

Max's POV

After I was done eating, I set my plate down in the sink. "So flock? What's the plan?" I leaned against the tiled counter.

"You guys are free to stay as long as you like. We've got plenty of room, and you're very safe here." Jack said.

"I think we should stay for a while. Come back out when it feels safe." Fang suggested.

The rest of the flock agreed to this, so I guess we are going to stay here for a while.

"Yeah, I guess that's the smart idea." I said. The kids were on summer break, and Jeb paid for all of our bills in the house, so we didn't need to worry about that.

_**It's all covered sweetie, I'll watch the house. You guys stay safe there.**_

_Ok. Thanks Dad._

Yes, I have started calling Jeb Dad. It still feels weird, but it feels right at the same time. Jeb had looked out after us when we were little, and rescued us, so I guess that kind of helped. After about 5 years or so, I had come to start trusting him a little. I wouldn't take some crazy chance if he told me it was safe, but I still believe that he is good.

"Well great. This place is actually going to be lively! I'm glad you guys are staying." Mandi said. "You guys can do whatever you want with your rooms. I don't really have much to offer about decorating them, but you can move the furniture around."

"That's ok; we aren't very artsy like that." I said. "By the way, how do you get all of this food?"

"I know somebody. He and his friends deliver food to us every week, as well as some other supplies, you know bandages, medicine, shampoo, soap, that kind of stuff. He can get you guys some clothes if you need it." Mandi suggested.

"Yeah, that'd be great." I said.

"Ok, I'm going to need your guys' sizes." She said. Everyone told her their sizes, and she wrote it down on a piece of paper. "Great, he should be here in two days." She said.

"The good thing is, we are 100 miles away from any civilization, so you guys can fly as much as you want without worrying. About 1 mile away from here, as I'm sure you know, there's a lake that is good for swimming, in case you get bored." Jack said. The flock was excited that they could finally fly without the worry of someone on the ground seeing them. We had lived in the city too long.

The flock began socializing and getting to know Jack and Mandi. I excused myself to go take a shower.

I went into the bathroom that was attached to our bedroom. It was huge and totally amazing; it had a giant bathtub, and a huge shower. Who knew an emergency shelter could be so luxurious?

A moment later I was in the shower, and finally adjusted the temperature just right. I loved the hot water rushing over my wings, it felt so good, and I closed my eyes for a little, enjoying the sensation. After a very long and very relaxing shower, I was loose and feeling great. Finally, I turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around me. I looked around for my clothes, and saw they were gone.

Fang's POV

_Oh, this is too good of an opportunity to miss! Max is going to blow her mind when she figures out what I did, but that's exactly what'll make it fun._

I allowed Max the time to turn on the water, and become focused on the hot shower. I then walked into the bedroom silently, focused on the shadow under the door, and went to shadow form. I exited on the other side, and averted my eyes from the shower, focusing on Max's clothes. I almost giggled as I picked up her shirt and jeans, and slowly crept back towards the door. I slowly turned the handle, and the lock clicked. I winced, but the shower didn't stop, so I opened the door just enough for me to get out, closing it behind me.

I scrambled around my room, trying to find a good place to hide it. Sure, I could have easily just hid it on the other side of the house, then Max would never find them, but how mean is that? I decided I wouldn't make her walk across the entire house half-naked, so I decided to just hide it in my room. Suddenly, little light bulb inside my head went on. I thought of the perfect spot. I hid them so they were totally out of sight, and lay down on the bed coolly. Then I thought, _Max has another pair of cloths! _

I ran to get her backpack, grabbed all of the clothes out of it, and ran into the kitchen with it. These ones she would find with clothes on, so I didn't care how hard it was to find these. I stashed them under the cabinets were all of the pots and pans go. Max never cooks, so she would never find them. I sniggered and went back into my room. I could hear the rest of the flock arranging their furniture in their rooms.

I resumed my position on lounging on the bed, laying coolly. I picked up a book, and began to "read" it. I read the words on the page, but I wasn't thinking about the story. I was waiting for Max to come out. Then, the shower turned off, and the shower door opened.

_Sweet! In 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… _

"FANG!!" Max's voice boomed from the bathroom.

_Kaboom. We have liftoff. _I sniggered to myself.

Max's POV

Fang was in soooo much trouble. Beyond trouble, he was so dead. When I got my clothes back, he was going to get it.

I cracked open the door, but didn't open it all the way. I peeked my head out, keeping my toweled body behind it. He was lying coolly on the bed, reading a book.

"Fang!" I hissed.

"Yeees?" Fang asked, a smug smile appearing on his face as he saw me trying to hide behind the door.

"Give me back my clothes!" I hissed at him.

"No, I don't think I will." He said, returning to his book.

I groaned, and went back into the bathroom. I returned to the door with a bar of soap still inside its box. I chucked it across the room, and it landed right on his head, practically poking his eye out.

"Ow!" He cried, putting his book down in surprise. "What are you throwing soap at me for?!"

"Because I hate you. Give me my clothes back."

"No can do." He said.

I groaned again, deciding I would need to get out of the bathroom to get my stuff back. I hated that because I knew that's exactly what he wanted me to do. I made sure my towel wouldn't fall, and I walked out of the doorway. "It's not funny anymore. Give me my clothes back."

"It's very funny, and you know it." Fang said, standing up from the bed.

"Do you want me to throw more pointy things at you?" I threatened.

"There's no need to get violent." He said, getting smart on me.

"This is the perfect time to get violent."

"Then I better make sure the knives are out of your reach."

"Fang, just give me my clothes back and I won't get mean."

Fang stood in mock horror, "Oh my God! Max is going to get mean! Are you going to turn into an eraser, or are you just going to throw more things at me?"

I tried to punch him, but it didn't really work because I had to make sure my towel wouldn't fall.

"You punch like a girl, freckles." Fang said.

"You try punching someone while you're trying to hold a towel up! Plus, I am a girl."

"Are you quite sure about that, you're kinda violent for a girl."

"Fang, stop acting like a six year-old and arguing like one. Give me my clothes!"

"Do you really think I'm going to just hand your clothes over to you? Not going to happen."

I groaned, if I didn't have any pride I would have started acting cute, but I had more dignity then that. I pushed past Fang, and began searching around the room. Fang leaned up against the wall, and watched in enjoyment. I scowled at him, and continued my search.

I looked everywhere, and gave up with the search. "Alright Fang, where did you put my freaking clothes! It's so not funny anymore! Just give them back!"

The door burst open, and Gazzy came in. He got one look at me in a towel, Fang leaning against the wall, and said "You know what… forget it, I don't want to know." He closed the door.

"Knock!!" I yelled after him. "Knock next time!"

"Fang. JUST GIVE ME MY CLOTHES BACK!! This isn't funny!"

Again, Fang nodded his head no.

"Screw you." I said, walking out of the room.

I walked into Nudge's room, she turned around and got a look at me, wet and in a towel. She laughed and asked me "What happened?"

"Don't. Ask. Just give me a pair of clothes." I said grumpily. Nudge laughed at my 'tude and handed me a pair of cargo pants, and a shirt that looked like it would be tight on me.

"Thanks." I mumbled to her. I walked to our bedroom, and glared at Fang as I walked back into the bathroom.

I changed, and walked back out. "I hate you. Do you know that?"

"No. No I didn't."

"Rhetorical question." I said. I walked right up to him, and cornered him, he did nothing to stop it. Fang probably expected me to punch him or something, but instead I tickled him. Fang hated being tickled, hated it a lot more then being punched. I knew exactly where he was most ticklish (don't ask) which was right on the sides of his stomach. He giggled (you have no idea how weird it was to see Fang giggle) and tried to shove me off unsuccessfully. He tried to glare at me, but was laughing too hard. I finally stopped, and he was trying to catch his breath.

"Do it again, and I'll kill you." I said, walking towards the door.

I walked past Gazzy's room; he saw me and said "Max, you know you can see right through that shirt."

"Are you serious?" I asked, wide eyed. He nodded, and I said, "Give me a shirt, now!" He got me a big shirt, and handed it over. I ran to my room and muttered while I passed Fang "Bloody pervert." He sniggered, and I didn't bother to respond.

I changed into Gazzy's overlarge shirt, and felt a lot more comfortable in it. I walked out of the bathroom, and said to Fang "I expect this from Gazzy, but not from you. Since when are you such a pervert?"

"Max, we're 24, can't we be dirty every once and a while?" Fang said, giving me a cute little sideways smile. Instantly I felt less mad at him, and my heart started beating a little bit faster.

Someone knocked on the door, I recovered myself, and said "Come in!" Gazzy opened up the door, and cleared his throat.

"Oh, now he knocks." Fang muttered.

"Hey, the flock wants to check out the area. Want to come?" Gazzy said.

"Yeah, sure." I said. Gazzy nodded, and walked out of the door.

"We'll talk about this later." I said to Fang, heading out the door after Gazzy. "Come if you want." I went into the kitchen, and saw the flock waiting for me.

Fang came from behind me, and said "I'm coming too."

"Remember the special knock, and the password is shadows." Mandi said, waving us out the front door.

Iggy took off first, followed by Nudge, then Gazzy, Angel, Me, and Fang followed. I loved being back into the air, defying gravity. But what I loved more than flying, was that the entire flock was with me, safe and happy. I guess I could live here for a while.

* * *

**Thanks for all the people who have reviewed and stuck with me for so long (That means, jokerofred, BabySuni, Isolde Eris, up and coming writer, ShadowCatMage13, Makmay04, and especially my little editor : ) (Love ya K!)) There is plenty of others, but I can't mention you all! Thanks to all who review!**

* * *


	15. Well, That Wasn't Expected

Chapter 15: Well that wasn't expected…

After a good long look around the area, we decided to land by the lake and check it out. One by one we landed, Gazzy was first and Fang was last. Angel took off her shoes, and dipped her feet in. "It's a little cold, but still good." She commented.

"I wish we had brought our swimsuits. Then we all could have swum today, and now we have to wait." Nudge grumbled.

"Well, I don't know about you, but when I've got 10 minutes to pack, I don't really think about bringing my swimsuit. Maybe Mandi's friend can bring them to us." I said.

"I'm sure he could." Fang said.

"It's starting to get a little late anyways. Maybe we should head back." I suggested.

"Yeah, we should. Mandi doesn't like it when you knock on the door late at night, plus we need to be able to have good vision when we're outside, we can't risk anything seeing us go into base."

"Ok flock, up and away." I commanded. We all took off, and Fang leaded us back to the safe house. He used the "special knock" and gave Mandi the password. She lets us in, and we all walked down the steps that lead us to the living room.

We were greeted by the sight of Scorch, sitting on the couch facing us. He smiled uncomfortably, and Fang stood a little rigid. We all were not sure exactly whose side Scorch was on, but searched him and saw nothing threatening or a tracking devise. He could always have a chip, and he couldn't even know it.

_Wonder if Jack has got an X-ray in this place?_

There was a long awkward silence that followed, and nobody seemed to know what to say.

"Well, it got quiet. I thought you guys would be happy to see him…" Jack said, breaking the silence

"Oh, we're glad to see him ok… but we just…." I didn't really know how to put it.

"Don't really know if he is good or not." Fang finished for me.

"What do you mean?" Mandi asked.

Fang explained the situation to her, and she starred wide-eyed at Scorch.

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Mandi said.

"Because I knew you would freak out."

"Well what do you think I'm doing right now!?"

"Freaking out." Iggy muttered.

"I love how you talk about me like I'm not here." Scorch said. Everyone's gaze flew to him, and he seemed a little nervous at the sudden limelight. "I know this isn't going to matter at all, but I promise you, I am not evil. They forced me to work for them, and I figured that I would be able to warn you guys before it was too late, so I gave in. I would never hurt you guys, even if it meant me dying."

"Angel?" I said. She starred at him, concentrating hard.

"He's clean, but I can't be totally certain." Angel said.

"You are all going to freak out, but I think I may have a chip in me, or a locating devise of some kind. Do you have an x-ray or something?" Scorch asked.

"Yeah. Of course." Jack said. "I can remove it too. Hypothetically speaking."

"Do it now, Jack." Mandi said, eyes glaring at Scorch, as if she could tell if he was good just by looking at him.

"Ok. Scorch, follow me." Jack said, still defensive. The two walked down the hall, and Mandi followed.

Mandi's POV

"Lay down. We're going to do your left arm first." Jack said. Scorch laid down on the examination table, and Jack covered Scorch's chest with a lead mat. He adjusted Scorch's arm, and focused the x-ray correctly. We both stepped out of the room, and he clicked a switch that took the x-ray. We both stepped back inside, and Jack repeated the same process on his right arm.

"It'll take 5 minutes for the x-ray to develop. But for now, I should check your arm by hand to see if I feel anything. Itex commonly puts chips in the left forearm, so I will check carefully there." Jack said.

Scorch allowed Jack to take his arm, and Jack felt the length of his left arm. "Well, there is a small bump, but it could be anything." He continued feeling the bump "But this doesn't seem like a very natural shape." He continued. "It feels an awful lot like the chip Fang had in his arm 5 years ago, it probably is the same kind."

"I'm going to check and see if the x-rays are ready yet." I said. I went into the room were the x-rays were developed, and saw they were ready. I walked back to Jack, and handed them to him. He examined them, and I noticed the x-rays showed that there was a perfectly square object imbedded inside Scorch's left forearm.

"Yup, you've got a chip." Jack said grimly. "It hasn't been in there very long, but there's some blood vessels and nerves that have grown around it."

"Is there a risk I'll lose the use of my arm?" Scorch asked.

"The odds are pretty good that we can remove it successfully. But we are going to have to remove it today, or you're going to have to go."

"When will you remove it?" Scorch asked.

"Immediately." Jack said. "Mandi, could you please go get the Anastasia from the cabinet and prep the usual tools?"

I turned on my heel, and searched through the cabinets. I found a set of brand new blades, and set them up in the surgery room. Not like this was some major life threatening thing for the patient, but we always did all of the surgeries inside this room. Just a habit I guess.

We found it best to have a mutant unconscious during surgery. One, all of them freak out at the sight of knifes if they are conscious. Two, some of the numbing chemicals have weird effects on different mutants. One time, we had this tiger mutant get like high or something the second we stuck the needle in. Lets just say, a majorly hyper- stoned mutant is not a pretty sight, especially when it took 3 hours for said mutant to calm down. After that occasion, we learned to never use that chemical. We stuck with Anastasia.

Jack had Scorch laying down on the operating table, and he practically started hyperventalating at the sight of the surgical knifes in my hands. "Look, I know you hate this, but I promise you, I won't hurt you. The surgery will be painless, and you will be asleep the entire time. I've done this procedure countless times, you've got nothing to worry about." Jack said, trying to be comforting to Scorch. If he was tense it would make the procedure that much harder, and we didn't need any more odds going against him.

Jack rubbed some numbing cream on the injection sight, and allowed it to soak in. He had drawn a circle with a marker on his skin, to show were the chip was. He pulled out a needle with the Anastasia, and checked for air-bubbles. Scorch starred at it, and breathed rapidly, his hands grabbed the ledge of the table, holding himself down. He seemed to be fighting the impulse to get up and run away. I knew exactly what he felt like.

I was here to be Jack's assistant, but this wasn't a big deal, so I highly doubted he would need me. I just liked to watch him do surgery, so I could learn for myself, and Jack was a brilliant surgeon to learn from.

Jack took a deep breath, and injected the Anastasia. Scorch eyes widened, and he freaked out, but didn't move a muscle, he was really tense though. Jack took out the needle, and said "Ok, that was the hard part. I'm going to need you to count down from 20."

Scorch started, and his voice became more distant and quieter by each number, "Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen… fifteen… fourteen… thirteen… twelve… elev-…." He had stopped counting, which means that he was truly unconscious.

"Mandi, I don't need you for this. Go tell the flock what we are doing, then you can come back and watch." Jack mumbled, concentrating on the surgery. I didn't really mind missing the beginning part, I hated seeing the knife slice through skin. (or in some cases, fur and skin…)

I exited the room, and told the flock about Scorch. Some asked a few questions, and I answered them as best as I could. They all nodded, and were all worried about getting the chip out and destroying it so Itex wouldn't find us. We all just hoped it wasn't too late. I had done my job, so I walked back to the surgical room.

Jack was three quarters of the way through, and was removing a square piece of metal from Scorch's arm. He sighed, because the hard part was over. "It was very easy, and I'm very confident that his arm is going to be ok."

Jack sealed it up in a bag. We always destroyed the function of a chip, but we also tried to not totally sabotage the entire thing, just to see the different models that Itex used.

"Hey, do you want to take it from here? I'm confident you know how to do stitches perfectly." Jack said, smiling warmly at me.

"Sure." I said. I was sure I would be able to do this right. While I was working on that, Jack was working on the chip. He unzipped the bag that had Scorch's chip, cleaned it off, and examined it closely. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him frowning at it.

I finished the stitches, and covered it with gauze and a bandage. "What are you frowning at?" I asked him, removing my rubber gloves.

"This chip is different then anything I have ever seen." Jack said.

"What do you m-" I was interrupted by Jack gasping. "What? What's wrong?" I panicked. It took a whole lot to get Jack worked up, and he seemed pretty freaked.

"This isn't a tracking devise." Jack said slowly, starring at the thing like it would explode in his face. "It's a bomb. And it's still functioning."

* * *

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN!! Don't worry you'll, the next chappie will be out soon, so you won't have to suffer long. **

**I would like to take this time to thank the people who review so often, I really couldn't do any of this without you guys. If I never got reviews, I wouldn't ever write anymore. I'd stop, at about chapter 5 and say 'screw you people I'm gonna go watch TV' but you review, and I'm dang happy about that. Let's hear it for K, she's my editor, and reaaaaally helps me with grammar and all that crap because I can't tell the difference between sense, since, sents… ect. (I think I may be dyslexic.) Anyways, if you're a writer, I'm sure you can relate when you only get like 2 reviews for one chapter. It makes you feel like people stopped reading, and you failed or something like that. I love it when you review, I swear I read it like 22 times taking note of everything you say. Reviews are wonderful, and I love them sooooo much. Ok… I can't think of anything else to pointlessly ramble on about crap that you could care less about. For you people that are still here, congrats, you passed the test, you actually read my A/Ns. I'm going to give you a sneak peek of the next chapter so you won't have to be hanging. You all are great for actually caring about what I have to say. (for all you people that don't read my A/Ns, sorry, you're going to have to wait until next chapter to figure out what will happen next.) So here it is, a very small sneak peek of next chappie. (PS, it's not in correct paragraph form because I didn't want to raise suspicion to non A/N readers.) /Mandi's POV: My face froze, **_**What!? It's a what!? **_**Jack cracked up, and doubled over laughing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. You should have seen your face! Priceless…" He said shaking his head.****"That was not funny." I grumbled. He had freaked me out so much. I glared at him, and stormed out of the room. "Stupid smug surgeon person." I muttered. /Yup, no bomb, all a trick. Now you guys aren't hanging, and the people who should be reading A/Ns get what they deserve. HA! **


	16. Just Like A Couple Should

**Now, I'm sure majority of you already know what happens in the beginning of the chapter because a surprisingly large amount of people read my A/Ns, (Thanks you guys!) For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there was an A/N at the end of Chapter 15 that was a preview for this chapter's first couple sentences. Sorry, I guess you should read my A/Ns now. (Although you probably aren't reading this right now... didn't think about that...) Anyways, enjoy chapter 16!**

"_This isn't a tracking devise." Jack __said slowly, staring at the__ thing like it would explode in his face. "It's a bomb. And it's still functioning."_

Chapter 16: Just Like a Couple Should

Mandi's POV

My face froze, _What!? It's a what!?_

Jack cracked up, and doubled over laughing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. You should have seen your face! Priceless…" He said shaking his head.

"That was not funny." I grumbled. He had freaked me out so much. I glared at him, and stormed out of the room. "Stupid smug surgeon person." I muttered.

I came to the living room, where _almost_ the whole flock was hanging out and talking. "The surgery went fine, and Scorch will be out of it for an hour or so, but will be drowsy the rest of the day." I announced to them all. The flock seemed relieved about this, but they weren't really jumping for joy.

"Where are Fang and Max?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could. _If they're alone, then that might mean… Uggggh._

"They're 'talking', together, alone in a room, and away from the rest of us. At least that what they said they're doing." Iggy answered.

_Ok, gross. I ain't go'in in their room tonight._

Max's POV

Fang and I walked into our room, turned on the lights, and locked the door (I'd like to see Gazzy try to barge in this time… (without the help of Iggy)). "Fang, we need to talk… about us." I started awkwardly.

I hated getting into the whole mushy touchy-feely emotional crap, but I was confused. It was like we were boyfriend/girlfriend at times, but others; it was like we were just friends. One side of me wanted to grab Fang and kiss him, but the other told me to keep things cool, to not ruin our relationship. We had kissed, and it felt so natural, so easy. 9 years ago, Fang told me that he loved me, but did he still feel the same?

Fang looked just as uncomfortable as I did, "Look, I don't want to do this either, but we're going to have to talk about it sooner or later." I told him.

"I know. But I don't really know where we are either." Fang said.

"Well, when we… kissed, it felt weird, but normal at the same time…" I started.

"Yeah, for me too… but the normalness conquered the weirdness. I remember just enjoying it at the moment, no weirdness involved."

"Yeah, that was definitely a great night." I sighed.

"We're good friends Max, but I think it should be more than that." Fang said. **(A/N yes, I'm aware Fang is OOC…)**

"Yeah, it would be great. Just promise me, don't let anything that happens between us ruin our relationship, we're too good of friends for that to happen." I said.

Fang nodded, and there was a long silence were we both looked at each other, me smiling, Fang's face expressionless as usual. "Sooooo, does that mean that we are boyfriend and girlfriend?" I asked.

"Technically… but I don't really like the word. How about…. Best friends?" Fang suggested.

I smiled, "Should we kiss to seal the deal?" I joked. (I wasn't serious, Fang just missed the joke.) Fang's eyes widened fractionally, and there was the smallest trace of nervousness. _Him and his public display of affection issues…_

"A hug then." I quickly changed. (Easier then explaining.) Fang put a small smile on, and we both hugged in a best friend sort of way; only this time, Fang actually hugged back. We hugged for a long time; Fang rubbed his hand soothingly on my back. Finally Fang pulled away, and I secretly wished we could embrace longer.

**Awwwwe, how cute. It's about time you guys got together.**

_Angel, out. Now._

"So, that's settled… shall we return to the flock where they will question us endlessly until we tell them what we were doing in here?" Fang said.

"I'm sure the flock already knows, Angel was listening in." I told him, shaking my head.

"Can you ever get some damn privacy in this place?" Fang muttered.

"Not possible, especially with a mind-reader and a motermouth in this place." I sighed.

"Shall we?" Fang said in a snobbish English gentleman voice, offering his arm out.

"I'd be delighted." I copied his sophisticated tone, and linked arms with him. (Hey, we're weird sometimes, can't you just let things go every once and a while?)

_**Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwe! **_

_There is such thing as privacy, you know. You may get out of my head now._

Together Fang and I exited the room, "I suggest we not hold hands, or the flock won't ever let us live it down." I said quietly. I let go of his arm, and we walked closely together down the hall.

Iggy hummed 'Here Comes the Bride', and Gazzy pretended to throw up in his bowl of cereal (nighttime snack…). Fang scowled at Gazzy, and lightly punched Iggy on the shoulder, muttering "Shut up, or I'll sing that every time you're with Nudge." Nudge laughed randomly, and Fang looked at her like she was insane.

"Wiiiiiiiierd image. Fang singing…" Nudge laughed again, and didn't stop. Fang looked at me nervously.

"You just crack yourself up, don't ya??"

"I try," Nudge said, resuming her laughing. She was trying to stop, gasping for breath.

"That face is not attractive on you." Angel commented.

I walked to the kitchen, and leaned up against the counter next to Fang. Lying on the counter was a massive coffee cake, and about a forth of it was missing. "Alright, who gave Nudge coffee cake?" I demanded. Nudge has a low caffeine tolerance rate (shocker, I know) so she gets majorly sugarhigh on pretty much nothing. She had been sitting around much of today, and hadn't burned any of the energy, so… you do the math.

Nudge+ sugar+ enclosed space a majorly sugarhigh/scary child.

"Nobody give Nudge any alcohol, or we are all in serious trouble. We don't need to relieve 2017." I said, not really kidding.

"Oh, do tell." Fang asked for the story behind the sentence.

"Well, to make a long story short, it was Nudge's 21st birthday party, and she had quite a bit of cake. Then, she had one too many martinis, and-" I said.

"Ok, don't go into weird details. You're done." Fang interrupted.

"Does anyone hear a high-pitched ringing?" Nudge asked randomly.

"Ok, you're wasted, time to go to bed." I commanded. Nudge apparently found something funny about this sentence, so she started giggling weirdly. "Iggy?" I gestured towards Nudge, but realized he was blind and didn't know what I meant. It's actually really hard to remember, with him being so independent. "Get Nudge to your room, please."

"Come on Nudge." Iggy said, pulling Nudge out of the room by her arm.

"Just one more piece. Oooone more." Nudge mused. Iggy pulled her down the hallway and Nudge continued rambling about random things the whole way down.

"Fang, remember, don't give Nudge caffeine… more importantly, remember not to give Nudge more then one alcoholic beverage. You do not want to see that."

"Trust me, I won't." Fang said.

"I'm glad you have common sense. Let's give the boy a cracker." I teased.

Fang scowled at me, unamused. "Mucho testy." He said.

"Hey, I'm tired, I'm going to hit the hay. 'Night." I said to the rest of the flock, yawning. **(A/N did anyone else yawn when I said yawning? Cuz I did. I got to stop staying up until 2 in the morning writing… but it's the only time I get 'inspiration'. Did I mention that I'm a bit of a night owl?)**

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired too." Fang yawned. **(A/N UGGGH…)**

"Night guys," I said, stacking fists with Angel and Gazzy.

"'Night." They yawned back.

Fang and I got ready for bed, and I changed into my pajamas in the bathroom, while he changed in our bedroom.

I opened the bathroom door, and saw Fang wearing his 'pajamas' which was really just a white tank top and his plain black boxers. I took one look at them, and raised my eyebrows at Fang. "Not that I don't just love your underwear, but we really need to get you a pair of jamies."

"What? This is what real men wear for bed." Fang said, flexing a little to emphasize his manliness. I do admit, it helped a lot.

"Since when are you a man?" I teased.

"Since I was 18."

"Real men have facial hair." I argued jokingly.

"Who says I don't shave?" Fang pointed out.

"I'm sure you shave peach fuzz."

"Why are we discussing my manliness?" Fang interrupted.

"You're just stopping the conversation because you know you lost." I said, smirking.

"This is a stupid conversation." Fang protested.

"It is, isn't it?" I agreed.

"May I go to sleep, or is that considered unmanly?" Fang said, but quickly followed with "Never mind, don't answer that."

I smirked, holding back a cocky comeback. He laid on our king bed, and pulled the covers over himself. I turned off the lights and joined him, sighing at the warmth and comfort of the bed. We stacked fists, and soon we both found ourselves drifting off to sleep. **(A/N I can't write anymore. Too much sleepy words…)**

**xxxxx**

This time, I woke up before Fang. I shuffled out of the bedroom, and saw Iggy cooking breakfast. "Hey Ig, what's for breakfast?" I asked.

"The usual bacon, eggs, and french toast." Iggy answered. "By the way, we need to get a stove this big, it's so much faster to cook everything."

The stove was meant to feed 40 people, it sure as hell had to be big. "Oh, and Max, I found something when I got the pans under the counter. I'm not exactly sure, but I think these are yours." Unerringly, he threw 2 pairs of clothes directly at me, the ones that Fang stole. I was still missing my other pair, but whatever, I would find those eventually.

"Where did you find these?" I asked him.

"In the cupboard with the pots and pans." Iggy repeated slowly.

"Oh he's good." I muttered to myself. I would have never thought to look there. "Need any help with breakfast?" I asked Iggy.

"No. I'd rather not catch the stove on fire." Iggy answered, sounding almost serious.

"Fine Mr. Housewife, You have fun cooking, I'm going to change." I went to my room, passed Fang's still sleeping form, and went to our bathroom. I changed and walked back out.

I looked at Fang still sleeping, and my pillow next to his head. I grinned, threw it at his back, and said "Rise and shine!"

"Bite me." He mumbled in his pillow.

"Now that's not the morning spirit! Let's greet the day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!"

"Go away." Fang mumbled, pulling the sheets above his head.

I figured it was time to do a little experiment. "Fine, sleep in. The flock and I are going swimming in the lake, so get up if you want to come." I said. Fang didn't move at all, so I decided to try something different. "I just wish I didn't have to wear this bikini…" I mumbled. Now THAT got a reaction out of him.

"I'm up! Lets go!" He said, jumping out of bed. He got a look at me, saw I wasn't in a bikini, and said. "Heeeey…" He started catching on.

"Breakfast!" I said cheerily, throwing in a big fake smile.

"You suck." Fang mumbled.

"And you're a bloody pervert. Hurry up and get ready for breakfast, I don't think the flock wants to see you in your undies." I strode out of the room, and into the kitchen.

Gazzy and Angel had woken up, and Scorch was laying down on the couch, snoozing. He had a piece of gauze rapped around his forearm. "He sleeps a lot, doesn't he?" I asked nobody in particular.

"Yup." Gazzy said lazily, slouching in his chair.

"Tired?" I asked.

"Couldn't sleep last night." Gazzy mumbled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Iggy give Gazzy a meaningful look, but didn't really give it a second thought.

"That sucks. Just take a nap later." I suggested. What else did we have to do, we were pretty much stuck here until we felt it was safe, which could be for who knows how long.

"Alright guys, breakfast." Iggy said, turning off the stove, and putting the last of the food on plates. "Just take what you want." He grabbed a piece of bacon and swallowed the entire thing in two bites, not bothering to chew it much.

"Hungry?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"No, just tired." Iggy said. A second later, he covered his mouth, as if he had uttered a terrible cuss word.

_Wait a minute… Gazzy AND Iggy both tired. They both are pretty good sleepers, unless they stay up all night making a bomb._

"Alright, you guys. Where did you put it?" I demanded, exasperated.

"Put what?" Gazzy asked, trying to look innocent, but I saw right through him. Gazzy was not good at lying, and sucked at poker.

Iggy punched Gazzy lightly on the shoulder, and muttered not quietly enough"I told you not to say anything, you can't lie for your life."

"Look, I'm tired of trying to catch you guys with those bombs. So just don't blow anything up, and I'll be good, alright?"

"Agreed." They both said quickly. Why was I doing this? 'Cuz I was lulling them into a false sense of security. Then, I would strike and find those little suckers. Old dogs can learn new tricks.

"Hey." Mandi mumbled, shuffling into the kitchen.

"Please don't tell me you couldn't sleep either." I said. Turning around, I saw Mandi was covered in sweat, and her cheeks were red

"No, I was just practicing my moves." She said.

"I'm sorry, what??" I asked. (I'm sure it's just one of those sick mind moment… please let it be that…)

"You know, the fighting room. It's the only way I stay on top of my fighting skills." She said. (Thank god.)

"You guys have a training room?" I asked, standing up. I could use some practice time with the simulations. We had one in our old house to keep on top of our moves.

"Yeah, one of our old patients figured out how to catch flyboys, destroy them, and put them back together. He made it so you could set them on beginner, medium, advanced, and insane, so you could challenge yourself. Problem is, we couldn't figure out a way to make sure you didn't get hurt, so they punch just as hard as a flyboy does. These ones just have an off switch if things get too extreme." Mandi explained. She stopped for a second, and appeared to be thinking.

"It's good that you get hurt though, it keeps you used to pain, so you won't get shell-shocked if you get into a real flyboy fight. This guy must have made like 50 of these flyboys, and he taught Jack how to make and fix them." Manid said. "Whenever you want a go in the room, you just tell me, and I'll teach you how to operate everything. All of the flock is welcome, and Conner if he wants to."

"Thanks, I think I could use some touch up on my fighting skills." I said. "Maybe after breakfast, I may be able to wrench Fang out of bed to come with us."

"Good luck getting Fang to do something he doesn't want to." Mandi laughed. "He's just too stubborn."

"Nobody knows that more than I do." I shook my head, smiling.

"Why helloooooooo ladies. You are all talking about me, and it better be good." Fang said, popping out of nowhere. I just happened to be holding a cup of OJ, and I jumped. I think you can figure out what happened.

"You jerk!" Mandi said, giving him a whack with her sweat cloth.

"Eew. I don't want your sweat thing touching me." Fang said, backing away.

"Sissy." Mandi mumbled under her breath.

"Why do you always have to do that?" I asked him, wiping the OJ off of my shirt.

"Because I can." Fang said simply.

"Well don't." I said. Fang raised his eyebrows, questioning exactly why he shouldn't. "Because it's not nice." Fang snorted, like he cared about being nice.

"Well, enough about this. Let's eat, I'm starving." Fang ended the conversation with a screeching halt.

I let him get away with it this time; I didn't feel like arguing this early in the morning. "Alright fine." I said, giving in.

"Food." Iggy moaned in the background. He piled up his plate, without spilling anything (he is frankly creepy sometimes…) and sat down at the table with Gazzy, Angel, Nudge, and Mandi.

Me and Fang piled our plates up with food (I couldn't help but throw a piece of toast at him) and sat next to each other at the table, just like a couple should.

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**Hey people, can you do the author a favor? I need people to vote in my poll located on my profile. Its about the Jonas Brothers (come on, you ALL know who they are) I want to** **see what people REALLY think about them without their friends around. Call it an educational experiment.**

**To Brooke Walsh: I've never had somebody say they like my story so much, so thanks for that. I guess you kind of got what you wanted, Fang and Max are 'Best Friends' (coughACOUPLEcough) Thanks for your support!**

**To Taylor: I suppose the button is a lilac color, but it's too blue. Anyways, I'm glad to know that you like my story. **

**THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWS! I LOVE (not the gay kind of love) YOU ALL! **

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	17. Sparring a Little Too Hard

**I'm really sorry it took forever to get this chapter out!! I just couldn't figure out what to write about, I would sit in front of my computer for like an hour and nothing would come to me like it normally does. The writer's block is somewhat over, and I'll try to write a ton this weekend, no promises when I'll get the next chapter out, so try to be patient. Sorry again!! On the bright side, this is the second longest chapter, 3,600 words, which is a hundred less that chapter 3, and my average chapter is around 2,500 words; so it's pretty big to reward you guys for waiting. Thanks for your patience!

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Chapter 17: Sparring a little too hard

"Uhhhh, I'm going to be lethargic the rest of the day…" I moaned after stuffing my face with breakfast.

"Maybe you shouldn't have stuffed your face." Fang said.

"Gee, thanks captain obvious." I sneered jokingly.

"Geeze Max, don't be a fatty." Angel said, laughing. **(A/N it's an inside joke…)**

"Shut up, all of you." I said, glaring at them. They used their better judgment and stopped making fun of me. I guess I would allow them to keep their heads.

"So, what about the training room?" Mandi asked, cleaning her plate.

"Fine with me." I said, and the rest of the flock agreed. Scorch was still asleep, so I guess he was going to learn later.

"All right, follow me." Mandi said over her shoulder, walking down the largest hallway in the house. She came to a door with a combination to the left of the handle. Mandi saw me looking at the lock, and she said "Oh don't worry. This is here to prevent any enemy from coming in. This also stores some of our best weapons."

"I always thought that was a safe." Gazzy muttered.

Mandi typed in a code very quickly, but not fast enough for me not to see the exact combination, 003456. **(A/N I'd be pretty dang impressed if for some reason this number seems familiar somehow, and you can tell me why. Come on, I know you can do it.)**

"By the way, the combination is 003456 for the next time you want to come in here." Mandi said, walking down a set of stairs into basement-like darkness. Everyone in the flock (except Fang) looked at me in hesitation. All of our instincts told us not to go down those steps, but I trusted Fang, and Fang trusted Mandi. Dark scary room it was.

I took the lead with Fang beside me, and the flock followed hesitantly. It got colder down here, and suddenly a light clicked on, followed by a bunch of other blindingly bright lights.

We were inside a room that looked like a basement, but was way more spectacular than one. It was all concrete, and about 30 feet away from the doorway, was a glass wall. Inside that glass wall, there was a huge arena-like place, which I guessed was where you fought flyboys. The ceiling was higher in the arena, and there was definitely enough room to fly. The entire thing must have been 30 yards both ways on the ground, and must have been at least 6 stories high. The walls inside the arena showed signs of bullets hitting it, and scorch marks. (Do they like have a flame thrower or something?)

"Sooo, pretty neat huh?" Mandi asked.

"Yeah. Spectacular." I gaped.

"This glass is unbreakable, and it's triple-layered. Not even bullets can go through all the way." Mandi said, tapping the glass that separated us from the arena.

"So, the room that you are in now is the waiting room. You can watch your flock fight, instruct them, and learn from them. It's also just here to take a breather and change weapons and such." Mandi explained, opening up a slightly hidden closet that contained shelves and shelves of weaponry. Daggers (probably not much use against flyboys), guns, bats, a flamethrower (I KNEW IT!!) you name it, it's there.

"Gazzy. I see that look in your eye. If you use that flamethrower I will forcibly remove it, then I will kill you." I said, warningly.

"I would like to see you try if I had my hands on a flamethrower." Gazzy mumbled.

"Iggy, you too. I don't need you guys getting more fun little pyromaniac toys; the world won't survive."

"Come on Max." Iggy whined. "We aren't going to catch anything on fire… well, except for the flyboys. Face it, we can control fire better then anybody you know."

"Yes, you can also CATCH things on fire a hell of a lot faster then other people." I reasoned. "No fire toys for either of you."

"I'm almost 18 now." Gazzy muttered.

"Fascinating, I'm 24." I said.

"Well, I'm 24 too." Iggy complained.

"You know what? End of discussion." I declared.

"That's not fair." Gazzy whined.

"Fine, you want to settle it? Gazzy against me in a fight, then after that, Iggy against me. No weapons, and play until one goes down for 5 seconds, no fighting dirty. Whoever wins gets to lay down the rules." I said.

If you guys are all "OMG they are going to fight each other!?" Don't worry; we wouldn't do very much damage to each other, at least not on purpose. Although, accidents do happen. One time, I aimed for Iggy's stomach, but hit a little lower than expected. Iggy insisted he was alright, but he looked in major pain. Just because we're part bird, doesn't mean we're totally different from you.

"Alright. Fine with me." Gazzy said, smirking. He obviously thought they were going to win. Well, he was obviously mistaken.

"How about Gazzy and Iggy against Me and Max?" Fang suggested.

Iggy and Gazzy talked, and I guess they were deciding their fight plan. They couldn't back out of this without looking like total weenies.

"Alright fine, we'll fight you guys, but Fang can't sink into the shadows." Gazzy said.

"Dang it." Fang muttered.

"Sounds good," I agreed.

"Well, this will be interesting." Mandi said. She opened up a door to the very right of the glass wall, and we all stepped in.

It was huge and totally spectacular in there. I saw Nudge and Angel sitting down on a bench in the waiting room, looking at us, waiting for us to begin.

"Alllllllllllrighy!" Mandi's voice boomed from unseen speakers. "Lets get this fight started!"

We all stood in our fighting stances, Fang next to me, and Iggy and Gazzy across from us. (Seriously! Iggy was looking right at me! I can't get over that!)

"In 10, 9, 8 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, onnne! FIGHT!" Mandi boomed through the speakers. Iggy went against Fang (Iggy is suicidal for doing that) and Gazzy went against me.

Gazzy, not wasting any time, faked a leap towards the right, and went left. I didn't fall for it, and did a quick right hook. I caught him square on the chin and winced, hoping I didn't hurt him too bad. He didn't show any signs of pain, so I continued without hesitation. There was quite a lot of circling, and a couple sloppy attempts to punch one another, none successful.

I took a quick look at Fang and Iggy, and saw Iggy's fist connect with Fang's nose. Fang's nose started spurting blood everywhere, but he didn't wince at all, he just continued strongly.

Gazzy took my small distraction as an opportunity to take a whack at me. He clipped me on the shoulder, but it didn't really hurt much. I ignored it, and took advantage of Gazzy being so close. I took one strong punch and nailed him strait in the gut. His breath left him in a low "oof" and stumbled backwards, but he quickly straitened up, and we resumed our circling.

"OOOH! Nice move Fang!" Mandi said from the speakers. I took one quick look over Gazzy's shoulder, and saw Iggy crumpled by a wall. My guess was that Fang threw him. That must'a hurt. Mandi started counting down from five, but Iggy sprung back up, and they continued their fight.

Gazzy was still looking over his shoulder, making sure Iggy was ok, and I took the opportunity to give him a lighter punch on the back.

"Hey, eyes on the opponent." I reminded him. It always a good time to instruct my flock about fighting tactics, even if we were competition fighting. To tell you the truth, I was going easy on Gazzy. Even though I knew he could take it, I just couldn't bring myself to hurt him. I purposely missed a few opportunities to hit vulnerable spots that could have had him unconscious at the first punch. After all, he's only 17; he's got so much more to learn.

See, the thing is, kicks are a lot more powerful, but are hard to control. When you're in an eraser fight, you don't really care where you are hitting, as long as it hurts. When you're fighting flock members, you could easily break somebody's bone, and you would care. So I stuck to punches.

I took a step forwards, and swung my fist towards him. I missed, and Gazzy took the opportunity to nail me _RIGHT_ in that _one_ vulnerable spot in my rib. (Didn't I mention that I have a small design flaw? It's such a tiny spot that I thought it wouldn't ever matter) I heard something crack, and pain exploded inside me. I went down, and sucked in air, trying to control my emotions.

_Pain is a message, you can ignore it. This is the time to ignore it! Don't cry in front of Fang, ignore it. _

Gazzy gasped at the sound, and Fang vs. Iggy went on hold. Fang saw me on the ground, clutching my rib, and he ran over to us. Gazzy kept saying things like "Oh, Crap. Oh, Crap."

I wasn't used to this kind of pain. Sure, last summer I broke my arm, but that was nothing compared to breaking a rib. I just laid in a crumpled heap on the ground, gasping for breath, trying to compose myself.

"What? I heard a crack, what's broken?" Iggy asked.

"I think I broke Max's rib, or ribs." Gazzy said, eyes wide.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." I said, trying to get them to stop fussing over me. My voice didn't come out as strong as I hoped, it sounded weak and in pain; the two things I hate admitting to the most.

"Lets get her out of here, we need Jack." Fang said, already Angel and Nudge were running in, followed by Mandi. "Mandi! Go get Jack!" Fang called to her.

"That's not necessary, I'll be fine." I said as steady as I could, trying to sit up. I wave of pain swept through my body, and I gave up on that. Mandi was already gone, running up the stairs. "Guys I'll be fine, I just need a sec." I didn't look that bad, did I?

"Max, stop talking. Lay down." Fang demanded, pushing me down by my shoulder.

"You guys are overacting. I'm fine." I tried to convince them. The pain was starting to make me get a little dizzy, but I shook it off.

"Shut up, wait for Jack." Fang demanded, making sure I wouldn't try to sit up. Trust me, that was the last thing I wanted to do at the moment.

I tried to focus on Fang, but the world seemed to be spinning, and his face went out of focus. I blinked, and everything went back in focus, (well sorta…)

"Everyone back away!" Jack yelled, opening the door. One second he was opening the door, the next second he was right next to us. Boy, he can run fast. "Except you Fang, keep Max's head elevated."

"I'm fine. They are overacting." I muttered, trying to not move my ribs as much as possible. Everyone ignored me.

Fang sat down next to me, and put my head in his lap. Again, my vision blurred, and slowly came back into focus. Jack was doing something, but I couldn't see. I thought I felt a needle pierce my skin, but that wasn't important at the moment. "Yeah, we need to get her a stretcher. We can't risk breaking any more ribs."

"I'm f-" I gasped, but was cut off by Angel.

"Want me to-" Angel offered, but was cut off by Jack.

"No, I'll get it." He ran his fullest speed out, ran up the stairs, and was back to us within 15 seconds. He set it down next to me, and asked Iggy and Fang to help him get me up.

"Guys, I can walk. I'm fine." Actually, I wasn't necessarily sure about that. I was just trying to ignore the pain, to push it aside. Giving into pain was for whimps, and I sure wasn't one.

"No Max, you're not." Jack said. "Please don't talk, and try to relax." I groaned, but a searing pain ran through my ribs, so I settled for an inward groan. All three of them gingerly lifted me into the stretcher, and made sure I was secure.

Fang and Jack carried me all the way to Jack's office. I didn't see if the flock was following, but at the moment, I was starting to get overwhelmed by grogginess. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, all around me there was noise and colors, but I could only comprehend some of it. I realized they had taken me off the stretcher and I was on a table of some sort. I remembered the time when I had told Fang I loved him after the Valium. I laughed, and for some reason my ribs hurt, so I stopped. I noticed Jack was holding another needle. I tried to move, but couldn't, Fang was holding me down.

"Max, I know you aren't going to like this, but it'll be over before you know it." Jack said, checking for air bubbles.

"It's ok Max. I'm here." Fang said, stroking my hair. He had a hint of panicking in his voice, but that didn't really matter. I instantly forgot about the needle, and was probably about to say something stupid that Fang would mock me for the rest of my life about.

"Max, do yourself a favor, and don't say anything." Fang said, covering my mouth.

"Fang, you may want to look away." Jack said. Fang looked to see what Jack was doing, and a tremor ran through his entire body. He winced and looked the other way. "Ok Max, can you please count down from 30 for me?"

"30, 29, 28, 27, 26" I slurred. My eyes became heavy, so I shut them. "25, 24, 23, 22… 21…"

XXXXXX

Fang's POV

Max made it all the way to 21, and then stopped counting. I stroked her hair, and kissed her forehead "It'll be alright Max." I whispered. I knew she would, she was the indescribable Maximum Ride, a couple broken ribs is nothing compared to what she had been through.

"Ok, Max is unconscious." Jack concluded. "I don't know If you want to stay here Fang, there's going to be blood. Well, of coarse blood won't bother you, but there is probably going to be knives and needles." Jack changed. Jack saw me look at Max, sleeping dreamlessly. "Don't worry Fang, Max will be ok. You stay here only if you want to."

"I'll stay, I'm fine." I mumbled, still looking at Max.

"Alright, you can leave whenever you want." Jack said. He lifted Max's shirt up, so he could see her lower ribs. Max looked incredibly skinny, not nessisary food deprived, but she probably hadn't eaten quite as much as she should have. "Jeeze, what has Max been eating?" Jack mumbled to himself. "That's probably the issue, Max hasn't eaten enough protein, and I'm guessing you guys need a lot of it to remain healthy."

_Dang it Max, if this was about me leaving…_

Jack felt Max's ribs that looked misshapen. They were definitely going to bruise. "Jeeze, this feels bad." Jack said, lightly feeling the length of her ribs. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of anger; Jack was touching Max, and looking at her. Even though it was just her stomach, I still felt the urge to punch him. She was mine.

_Dang it Fang, chill out. Jack is helping her._

"You alright Fang? You look kind of tense." Jack said, continuing his examination of Max's ribcage.

"It's nothing." I said quietly.

"You sure about that?" Jack said, looking up at me. "Because I'm pretty sure something is going on. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing." I repeated. Jack rose his eyebrows at me, but continued his work.

"Yeeeah, this looks bad" Jack sighed. "I'm going to x-ray this, but I'm pretty sure that we are going to have to do some surgery to correct the way the bone is healing. And because of her abnormally quick healing, it's already started trying to fix itself. If we hurry, we won't have to rebreak it." Jack said, walking across the room and picking up a lead mat.

"Fang, you're going to have to step out for a second, while I'm taking the x-ray." Jack said, placing the mat on her. He took out a machine, twiddled with it, and focused it on her ribs. I followed him out of the room, and he flipped a switch. He walked back in, and I followed. "Now all we do is wait." Jack said, taking the mat off of her.

We sat in awkward silence, and I played around with Max's hair. She remained silent and expressionless. "How long does that sleeping thing last?" I asked Jack.

He looked up at the clock in the corner of the room, and said, "'Bout an hour more."

Jack excused himself, and came back in with an x-ray. He held it up in the light, and sighed. "Yeah, three broken ribs. Not shattered, which is good, but broken."

"Sooo, will she need surgery?" I twiddled with my fingers, finding some way to hide my anxiety. "Yes, it shouldn't be a big deal though. It won't scar, and should only take 30 minutes." I sighed, trying to release stress, Max was going to get cut open, and I was allowing it.

"I'm going to leave." I said. I couldn't watch him cut Max, not without punching him at least.

"I think that's for the best." Jack said. I walked up to Max's still form, and I kissed her forehead for a moment. "You're going to be alright.." I whispered as quietly as I could to her. I sighed and walked towards the door, "Wait Fang. Can you get Mandi for me? I need her for the surgery." Jack asked. I turned to look at Jack, nodded, and walked back up. The flock rushed up to me, and asked for the status. Gazzy looked like he felt so guilty, and was worried out of his mind about this.

"Max has 3 broken ribs." The flock looked more surprised then they looked worried now.

"Three of 'em?" Iggy asked, looking flabbergasted.

I nodded, and said "Yeah."

Iggy turned to Gazzy, shook his head and said "Dude…" Only it sounded like he was praising Gazzy. He wasn't a little boy now, he could break Max's ribs with a simple kick. Now that's pretty dang impressive, but a little frightening at the same time. Good thing I was the best fighter out of all of us, but Max could probably hold me off for a long time, which made it even scarier.

"Jack is doing surgery to fix it or something; he wants Mandi down there to help." I said. Mandi nodded, and quickly scampered down there to go help Jack cut up my best friend. _Alright fine, my girlfriend._

"Did she look bad?" Nudge asked. I just raised my eyebrow. Did she honestly expect me to answer that? How can you be out cold and _not_ look bad?

"Right. Just forget I asked." Nudge mumbled sheepishly.

I knew Max would make be alright; I'm just overly paranoid on the inside. I do have emotions, and just as much as anyone else. I just choose to hide them. Max would be better before we knew it.

After all, this is the incredible, legendary Maximum Ride we're talking about.

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	18. They Did Something Right

**Well, it took a while, but I'm finally done.**

Chapter 18: Finally they did something right

I woke to a dull pain in my right ribs. I moaned quietly, and cracked my eyes open. I squinted in the light, gave up, and closed my eyes again. I realized that I must be in a hospital bed in the recovery room. I couldn't help but remember the time so very long ago when the entire flock was caught and put in the school, and waking up laying in those metal hospital beds.

I shivered, and I heard Jack's deep, yet warm voice say "Fang, I think Max is waking up."

"Are you sure?" Fang voice said, getting closer to me by each word. I heard Fang's footsteps come towards me, and I felt a pleasant chill run up my spine, which promptly turned into an unpleasant chill. **Note to ****self:** _ix-nay on moving any part of your body,__ or your ribs will feel like there're on fire._

"Yeah, I think I saw her move." Jack said. "Max? You awake?"

"Whaat?" I mumbled. I cracked my eyes open, squinting in the bright lights, wishing they would just turn the dang things off.

"Oh yeah, I knew she would be her old self in no time." Fang said, his hands coming to rest on my arm. "How do you feel?"

"Gee Fang, I feel just peachy." I said sarcastically. My eyes had gotten used to the light, and I looked up at him.

"Ooooh, somebody is testy." Fang said in a singsong voice.

"Somebody needs to shut up if they want to keep their faaaace." I singsonged right back to him.

"Somebody doesn't seem like they're in the condition t-" Fang singsonged.

"I'm over it now." I interrupted him, rolling my eyes.

"Ok, don't get Max ticked off, she doesn't need to get high blood pressure." Jack said. I was in a hospital bed, but wasn't attached to a million things that beeped, like they did in movies. I'm sure Jack thought I would tear them out as soon as I woke up, so I guess I'm glad that we were all on the same page. Plus, I'm sure if I saw a needle sticking into me I'd freak myself out, possibly leading myself to faint. I however was attached to one thing, an IV.

I started to get a little panicked. There was a needle INSIDE me, putting who knows what in my body. I just wanted to tear that thing out, but I think I might be sick if I did.

"Max, stop panicking, it's just an IV." Jack said, making sure I wouldn't tear it out.

"What… why… this… thing… I think I'm gonna throw up…"

"Look, you were unconscious for 26 hours, we needed to feed you." Jack said, trying to sound soothing.

"Told you she'd freak out." Fang muttered from the side of the room. He leaned coolly against the wall, arms crossed, the bottom of his right foot against the wall.

"Thanks for your support, Fang." Jack said, turning to look at him.

"Why-"

"Look, if it will make you feel better, I'll take it out." Jack said, leaning over me, gently lifted the tape off, and pulled the needle out in one fluid motion. "There, problem fixed." He said simply.

"You need to stay calm, I've leaned from other mutants with enhanced heart rate that when you start to panic, you tend to hurt your injury even more. So calm down, so I can give you some pain killers." Jack said. He handed me 2 round white pills, and I swallowed them quickly. "Those should make it painless for the next 5-6 hours." Jack said.

My ribs just seemed sore and tight, because of the bandage wrapped around it. "How long'll this thing take to heal?" I asked. Not like I cared, as soon as I could stand up, I'd be out of this bed.

"Well, for you… I'd say probably 7 days until it's completely healed. Bone doesn't fix fast, it takes a normal person 6 weeks to heal from a broken wrist, maybe longer. You broke 3 ribs, which would probably take twice as long for a normal person. Consider yourself lucky, you'd be in the hospital for 2 weeks with broken ribs if you were normal."

"Joy, because I totally-"

"Look, being a mutant is a lot better then being a normal human. At 24, you'd already be weighted down with a job. Instead you're free to do what you want; you're so free you can fly. If that's not freedom, then I don't know what is."

"Normal people don't have wacko scientists stalking them. Normal people don't have to go into hiding. Normal people don't have to save the freaking world. Normal peop-"

"Look I get it. Normal people can also get _killed_ with one punch to the head. It would take an incredibly powerful punch for that to happen to you guys."

I didn't argue this time, I wasn't in the mood. I just wanted to get out of this bed, and kick Gazzy's 'sorry' little butt to show him who's boss. He's probably going to be all smug about knocking me down. I could have knocked him out right when he wasn't paying attention. He better know that, if not, I guess I'd have to show him once I was better.

The door opened and the entire flock came in, Gazzy in the very back, looking sorrier then ever. "Hey Max!" Nudge cried, running up to hug me. "It's good to see you awake."

"Yeah, you were out of it for some time." Iggy said.

"How are you feeling?" Angel asked. That's twice in one day, what do people honestly expect me to say?

"Fine. I'm fine." I said gruffly. Why are they fussing over me, it's not like I was on my deathbed or something… right?

"Hey Max." Gazzy said, toying around with his fingers. "I'm really sorry."

"Dude, it's fine. Don't worry about me." Gazzy still looked really guilty so I added "I'm glad you finally nailed that high kick, you hit me pretty damn hard. You've done good kid." Gazzy smiled shyly, and seemed to become less nervous.

"Does it hurt?" Nudge asked.

"No, but I'm sure I'm on major meds right now." I said. I'm sure Fang made Jack give me a million medications that would make me feel good. It's just his thing, always thinking of others, but would NEVER show love physically in front of the flock. Poor little emo boy.

"How long'll you be sitting here?" Gazzy asked.

"I don't know, as soon as doc will let me get out of the bed. After a day, I'm getting out, whether Jack wants me to or not." I said.

"Uh, no you're not." Jack said. "You're getting bed rest for 3 days. Do you want to injure it again, and go for 6?" Jack asked.

"I'm not going to re-break it!" I complained.

"That's just what Mandi said before she re-broke her wrist." Jack said.

"Yeah, well, Mandy was probably being stupid." I said.

"True. But I still don't want to have to do another surgery." Jack said.

I groaned, knowing I had lost the fight. "Fine." I groaned. I knew I was looking at an entire 3 days laying in bed, bored out of my mind.

"Glad we got that settled." Jack said. "Now, everyone needs to get out. I need to check to make sure Max's bones are healing right." Jack said, shooing everyone out of the room. Fang remained in the back round, doing his usual stance leaning against the wall. "Alright Max, you've got to lift your shirt up a little." Jack said, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves.

I sighed, and lifted my shirt up a little. Jack probed gently at my ribs, comparing the left to the right one. I knew that should have hurt like hell, but I was on some medication that took care of that. "Alright, it feels fine. I have to change the bandages though."

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Hey, do you want to get an infection? That'll add more days to your recovery time." That shut me up. He gently pulled the bandage off, revealing nasty looking stitches. "Yes, I know. Gross." Jack said, pulling out a bandage. He began cleaning my stitches, and lathered it in some cream stuff. He put a bandage on me, and I pulled my shirt back down. "Alright. That's all for today. You've got the TV over there and I can bring you books or something. If you need something, just push this button" he motioned to a little red button on the side of my bed. "You hungry?" Jack asked.

"Yes." I said enthusiastically.

"I'll get you some breakfast." Jack said.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"No prob." Jack said. He walked out of the room, and I heard his footsteps make their way up to the kitchen

"You look so sexy right now." Fang said sarcastically, making his way towards my bed.

"Just harass the patient why don't you."

"You aren't going to wait 3 days in bed are you?" Fang asked, but he probably already knew the answer.

"Hell no." I said. I felt good enough to stand up and fly right now.

"Jack doesn't know squat about you." Fang said, a crooked smirk on his face. "His life is going to be living hell trying to get you to cooperate."

"Hell yeah it is. At least until he gives up." I said.

"I know it." Fang said, sighing.

XXX

The next two days were pretty uneventful. After the first day I decided to get up out of bed, as everyone knew I would. And here's the thing, Jack allowed it. He however refused to give me my painkillers. Guess who won. So I stayed in bed for two whole days, Fang staying by my side most of the time. We killed the time by having shallow conversations, often getting into the issue of Fang's manliness and how sexy I looked after laying in bed for 2 days without taking a shower. We both harassed each other verbally like the entire time, although it was strangely enjoyable. This morning was day 4 after accident, and I was finally allowed to get out of bed.

"Alright Max, it's common for you to feel lightheaded. So when it happens, you should sit down and take it easy. No flying for 5 more days alright? We don't need to go back to day one." For some reason, Jack looked at Mandi while saying this, she put her hands behind her back and started whistling. The entire flock was in the room, all coming to 'celebrate' my 'Max finally gets out of bed' day.

"Ok, I did that _one time_, and you accuse me for life." Mandi said.

"You flew when you had 11 stitches on your shoulder! What do you expect would happen?" Jack accused.

"It was on my shoulder bone! I was inside for 5 days, and you don't fly with your shoulders, alright!"

The two continued their little bird vs. wolf fight, and I got out of bed, wincing at the tenderness. Jack started to give me only one pill, saying I didn't need 2. Whatever, I don't attempt to understand the aspects of the male mind.

"Tender?" Fang asked, coming close as if he expected me to suddenly fall flat on my face.

"A little." I said, walking stiffly across the room because I hadn't done much for 2 days, Fang followed me like I was a light and he was the retarded June bug. (how's that for poetic element?? Go me!)

"Whoa, little wobblely there Max." Fang said, smirking.

"Shut up, you couldn't even sit in the car without wincing every time you went over a bump after the whole Ari incident" Fang shut up after that. I guess he felt like a sissy after that entire thing. Now that you really think about it, it kinda was.

"Fine! I screwed up alright! Let it go!" Mandi said/yelled. My head started throbbing, and I was irritated.

"Guys! Patent in the room, patient who gets headaches easily!" They mumbled sorry, and I continued getting re-used to the concept of walking. The cut from the surgery was almost healed, and Jack said he would remove the stitches soon. We had all gotten our new sets of clothes and swimsuits when I was unconscious, so I never got to meet the guys. The bright side was that we had a bunch of new food just waiting to be eaten.

"God, I so can't wait to take a shower, and go to sleep in a real bed!" I groaned, I was cranky from those days just lying in bed, doing nothing.

"Yes, we all know that." They all said.

_**No need to be mean Maximum.**_

_Is this Jeb, Angel, or freakish stalker voice?_

_**Jeb.**_

_Oh. So why exactly did you choose now to be annoying._

_**I'm you father, Maximum.**_

_Soooo...?_

_**It's my job to be annoying.**_

_And you're completely successful with that task._

_**I just came to warn you. A large group of Itex spies are flying your way, but there is no way they can find you as long as you all remain inside.**_

_Of course! Just__ my luck._

_**Look Max, Itex is after you and Fang. It's obvious why they want Fang, but you… I just don't know.**_

_Itex can't just tell you what they're up to, they just have to go all wooly mammoth after you, and fail miserably every time._

_**I used one of those wooly mammoth scientists.**_

_And your point is?_

…

_Jeb??_

_**What.**_

_Why exactly were you on their side._

_**It was for many reasons Maximum. One of which to watch after and protect you. To protect the entire flock.**_

_You made my life living hell. _I stated bluntly.

_**I have my reasons.**_

_Then why can't you just tell me?_

_**I just can't.**_

_Of course you can't. Why make my life easier, let's just torture Max for the fun of it! WEEEE!_

_**Real mature.**_

_Look, I still don't trust you. I don't think I ever will._

_**I understand.**_

_No, no you don't. Have you ever LIVED like me? Have you ever been Fang? I don't think so._

_**Fang dealt with it just fine.**_

_This isn't about Fang._

_**Are you sure?**_

_It's not about Fang!_

_**Alright. Alright. But I will tell you one thing. You were the original Angel Experiment. **_

_No duh. That kinda explains how I was "Born" first._ Jeb just ignored me.

_**Fang and Iggy came shortly after you. Want to know why?**_

_What do you think??_

_**They were purposely made to be your…. I suppose…. Mates. You and Iggy were supposed to fall in love; we designed it to be like that. He was perfect, had absolutely no flaws, at least until he got blinded. However, we decided it would be safer to have two males just in case something went wrong with one of them. We however, didn't need to do anything to guide you to picking anybody, you and Fang always seemed to get along, so we just decided to see what would happen. Finally, Fang made the first move in the canyon and I couldn't be happier. After that, it just started slowly coming onto both of you.**_

I just stood there, shell-shocked, mouth agape. Waaaay too much info in one day. I nearly upchucked at his choice of words, like a true scientist would put it. Mates…. It made me feel like an animal.

_Thank you for that wonderful piece of information_ I said sarcastically,_ That'll be all for today._

_**Whether you like it or not, you and Fang were made for each other, but you guys made it work. I'm just telling you because it feels like the right thing to do.**_

And with that, Jeb was out of my head. I came to, and saw everybody staring at my vacant expression.

"Whoa Max. That must have been a long talk to yourself." Gazzy said, a hint of taunting in his voice.

"How long was I standing there?" I asked, honestly curious.

"'Bout 2 minutes." Gazzy answered.

"Yeah, Jack started freaking out, thinking you had fainted without falling over." Mandi sniggered at Jack.

"I'm a doctor! It's what I do!" Jack said defensively.

"Look, I'm fine. Just having a talk with Jeb."

"Oh, right. Fang told me about the voices in your head thing." Jack said. I turned to face Fang, and with my eyes demanding whether he had told Jack about the entire 'him catching me from falling out of the sky like ninety million times' thingy.

"What are you giving me that look for??" Fang asked.

"Max is demanding weather you have told Jack about max falling out of the sky." Angel said for me.

"Thank you for announcing it for everyone to remember again. Can you say that any louder?"

"I'm just making it easier for everyone else. It saves another little fight between you and Fang. You're welcome."

"I already knew anyways." Jack said.

"Of course you did."

"Alright, so I told Jack about it. He would have found out sometime anyways." Fang said.

"That's debatable." I argued.

"Debate over. Let's go do something else." Fang said.

"Whatever." I said.

"Just another lovely day with the flock.," Iggy said in a falsely cheery tone. Only this time, I just couldn't look at Iggy the same. I fought to control my gag reflex, as I thought about Iggy and Me. It just didn't seem right. In fact, it seemed wrong on _so_ many levels. Me and Iggy…. And I hate to put it in scientific terms, destined mates. I'm REALLY glad they decided to make Fang or… Eew. I guess those scientists finally did something right.

Fang's POV

_26 hours ago_

I tossed and turned in the overlarge king bed. I just couldn't sleep; the bed felt so empty, and I felt so alone. It just wasn't the same, trying to sleep without Max, to hear her deep even breathing before I finally dozed off. The empty space next to me were Max should be, felt lonely, cold, and dark. Of coarse, Max wanted to go to sleep in our bed, but Jack wouldn't allow it; saying she needed to sleep with her feet lower then the rest of her body, therefore had to stay in the cold hospital bed. Max was too tired to fight it, but I took comfort in the fact that Max would be better in a few days, and I could finally sleep again. This was the final sign I needed…

I now knew I was truly and unconditionally in love with her, and it felt so, so good. **(A/N Sound familiar at all?)**

**xxx**

**Hey people, Geting ready for highschool is hard. I've still got to get two promotion dresses... I'm just thinking that i have 4 more wasted years of my life, then i can finally go to collage were things actually frickin matter. School sucks up your entire life. :( Vacation is coming though!! **

**Oh yeah, and review. I want to reach a new record of 9 reviews for one chapter!! Can you do it??**


	19. That's New

**Another chapter is out. I made it over 100 reviews, Go me! Thanks to everyone! This chapter is a little uneventful, and a little shorter. I'm working on chapter 20, don't know when I'll be done. **

**Happy Memorial Day!! (That came out wrong...) Uh... cant think of a way to put it better... you know what I mean.**

Chapter 19: That's not something you see every day...

"Alright. Here's a very soft cloth, and in the shower I want you to very gently clean the area where your stitches used to be, and _only_ this soap. If you use anything else you can get weird infections and I do not specialize in them, so I wouldn't risk it." Jack said. He handed me the 'special' cloth, and the 'special' soap.

I nodded, and enthusiastically made my way towards the bathroom. It had seemed like forever ago since I took my last shower. My hair was totally destroyed; like having long hair and going to the beach 3 days in a row without taking a shower. I undressed, this time making sure my clothes were within plain view, and I consistently looked over at them to avoid my pervert roommate (boyfriend) from stealing them.

I took a lengthy shower, scrubbing my hair really good. The shampoo smelled good, something between a fruity smell, and something really sweet. After a while I started getting drowsy from all of the hot water, and I decided that was probably a signal to get out. I opened up the glass door, releasing a mist of steam out into the already fogged room. I sighed pleasurably in the warm room, and redressed into my new comfortable clothes. Once I was fully dressed I stepped out into our bedroom.

Fang was wearing a pair of jeans, and that's it. He was topless and waiting right outside the bathroom door. I took a moment to admire his incredibly chiseled arms and abs.

"What?" I asked, giving him a weird look. He was just standing there, topless and staring at me. "Hello? You there?" I asked. He continued to just stand there, and unreadable expression on his face. "You're weird today." I took a step to the side, ready to just walk away. He stuck an arm out, and stopped me. "What?" I asked again.

Fang swiftly bent down and kissed me, his lips moving in a desperate way, as if he couldn't get enough of me at once. I closed my eyes, and went with the flow. I wasn't exactly sure what prompted him to kiss me, but who cares? The only thing that matters is that he kissed me. He pulled me closer to his incredible chest, and I could tell were every muscle was, without even opening up my eyes. It continued intensely for who knows how long, it didn't really occur at the moment for me to count.

Finally I broke away, both of us breathing raggedly, catching our breath. "What was that for?" I asked breathlessly. He still held me in his arms, both of our faces inches away from each other.

"Does there have to be a reason?" He responded softly. I mentally answered "_I guess not_," but he seemed to understand without words. We were back together again, my eyes closing, taking in Fang's wonderful smell, feeling his incredible muscles against my body again. It felt so good, and so right.

There was a scratching noise on our bedroom door, and several giggles on the other side.

"They're making out?" I could make out Nudge's voice.

"Yeah!" Angel whispered back. Fang and I pulled apart, both of us hearing them at once.

"Guys!" Fang roared. I could never scare them, they weren't afraid of me ('Cept when I got REALLY mad); Fang was just plain intimidating. I heard frantic scrambling on the other side, and various footsteps scurrying down the hallway. I sighed, and turned back to Fang.

"I don't know why they always do that. It's not like I wait outside Nudge and Iggy's room spying on them." I said.

"Don't talk." Fang said, pulling me back to kiss Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent had become Mr. Tall, Romantic, and Flirty; what a pleasant surprise. Again and again we kept kissing, breaking apart to breathe, and then kissing again. It was about time something like this happened.

The doors barged open, and guess who came in. No, not Gazzy, he learned to not come in our room ever again. We sprung apart before we could even get a glimpse of her, and her getting a glimpse of us, but I recognized her voice. "Oh crap. Sorry…" Mandi said, closing the door quickly.

Me and Fang looked at each other, it was different when Gazzy barged in; Mandi was… a really good friend of Fangs. It just was a lot more horrifying having a someone outside of the flock walk in on us kissing. I made a sad attempt trying to laugh, but it came out as a nervous little "heh".

"Well, the mood is destroyed." Fang mumbled.

I laughed nervously again, and took a step away from Fang. "We really need to get a lock for that door." I said, my hand rubbing the back of my neck.

"Yeah. Saves the awkwardness." Fang said. We stood awkwardly, searching for something to say. The awkward silence must have stretched to like 20 seconds or something. I fiddled around with my fingers, and Fang looked down at the floor.

_**Well you have to admit, Max. That looked pretty bad, especially because Fang was topless.**_

_Oh shut up Angel. I still remember me walking in on you and Scott making out in your room when you were a freshman_

_**That's different.**_

_How?_

…

_Whatever Angel. Get out of my head, I'm tired of telling you._

Fang laughed nervously in the continued silence. "Should we?" I said motioning towards the door. Fang shrugged, and we walked towards the door together, both us secretly bracing for the impact of comments that the flock was sure to give.

Surprisingly when we came down there was not a rush of questions that greeted us. I guess they probably knew it would happen sometime, especially with Angel picking up on that stuff. Scorch was sort of like an outcast from the flock, sitting in an armchair with a book in his lap several feet away from everyone else. I felt sorry for him; he was one of us after all.

Gazzy started mimic-singing some old romantic song in a smooth male voice. Nudge elbowed him in the rib, and Iggy sniggered.

"Yes alright, we kissed. Get over it, we're 24, it was going to happen eventually. Gazzy, you of all people should understand that, by what Max tells me." Fang said, going over and trapping him in a headlock.

"Fine, fine. I know, its just fun to taunt you." Gazzy said, trying to get Fang to release his grip, Fang didn't. "You can let go now."

"No, I like to watch lesser people squirm while I watch in enjoyment. You best know who the top dog of the flock is." Fang said.

"Alright, I bow down you your superior manliness; just let go now."

"Cut it out." I said sharply. Fang immediately obeyed, and Gazzy rightened himself. It was all guy's male bonding or something. Whatever, I don't attempt to understand the aspects of the male mind.

"Good to know who the top dog is in this flock." Gazzy said smirking, referring to me.

"Don't you forget it." I stated.

"Yeah, well… Max is vicious." Fang said defensively.

I looked dryly over at him, "Ha Ha. You're hilarious."

I could have sworn I heard Fang mutter, "I try."

Angel suddenly stood up in amazing speed, looking overexcited for my sake. The last time Angel got this excited ended with me wearing a totally skimpy dress. (Loooooong story) Anyways, she caught the attention of everyone in the flock, and Scorch. "I've got the greatest idea!"

I groaned, here it comes… "Let's play spin-the-bottle!!" She exclaimed. Nudge squealed, and agreed enthusiastically. Iggy didn't look thrilled at all about it, Gazzy and Fang looked horrified. Me… well I wouldn't know how I looked, but I wasn't happy about it.

"That's SO sixth grade!" Gazzy groaned.

"We're like all family here, isn't that like worse then lesbian?" Iggy asked, looking disgusted.

"None of us are related, except Gazzy and Me. Come on, it'll be fun!" Angel said again.

"No." I said firmly. That was just some disgusting incident just waiting to happen; Such as Fang landing on Iggy.

"No!" Iggy and Fang said after me.

"You're all a bunch of party poopers!" Angel said, slumping back down onto the couch. I breathed a sigh of relief. That game was just wrong at our age, and guy kissing guy was bound to happen and is wrong on so many levels.

"What about-" Angel started.

"NO!" Gazzy yelled before she could finish.

"Fine!" Angel slumped back onto the couch again, arms crossed, and pouted. "I'm so bored!"

"I am too." I agreed with her.

"We all haven't stooped to that level of boredom yet!" Gazzy cut in.

"Well, what do YOU want to do then??" Angel demanded.

"I don't know; why don't we just go to the lake or something?" Gazzy suggested.

"Fine with me," Nudge said.

"Me too." Iggy said.

"Alright…" Angel gave in.

_Hey Jeb?_

_**Yes Max?**_

_Is it safe to go outside today?_

_**Yes, the Itex spies are hundreds of miles away from you. You're safe for today.**_

_Thanks._

"Finally we get to wear the new suits; I hope mine will fit good. Of course I know it will, because it's like, well my size; but sometimes these things fit weird, you know what I'm-"

I cut off Nudge's little rant by saying, "Yeah, great. I can't go; Jack'll kill me."

"You can just stay out of the water." Fang suggested.

"No, I mean I can't fly; apparently I'll like tear out the stitches that I don't have."

Fang waved his hand dismissively, "I'll carry you."

I raised my eyebrows. "You… carry me. You could barely hold me for more than 30 seconds; how are you going to keep me in the air for 2 minutes?"

"I'll manage Max, I'm a lot stronger then you think I am."

"My macho man," I sniggered. Fang glared at me, unamused.

"Alright, that's solved; I'm going to go get my trunks on." Iggy excused himself. The rest of the flock left with him to go get ready for a day of swimming. I looked up at the clock, it said it was 11:30; the perfect time of day for a swim. Too bad I wasn't actually going to be swimming, stipid stitches that aren't even there…

Fang's POV

The last of my cuts finally healed, and for the first time in 9 years, I was in perfect condition; No scratches, no fractured bones, wings fully functional. I couldn't wait to fly totally painlessly.

I was in my new black trunks, thanks to Mandi, who had specially requested black for me. Just thinking about Mandi brought the embarrassment back; I'd never thought that someone outside of the flock would catch me and Max kissing.

I looked in the mirror in our room, examining all the crisscrossed scars coving a pretty good amount of my chest and abdominals, uncovering the darkest and cruelest times in my life. I remembered one of the most painful memories from my time in the school, and the long gash running from my sholderbone and almost to my bellybutton that proved the incident. The whitecoats had me fight 10 erasers, thinking I would be able to hold them off. And I did, for the longest time, until one of them went haywire, and pulled out a knife. The whitecoats didn't want to kill me; they just wanted to understand the effects of my heatbeat during specific fights. They rushed me to surgery, most thought I was surely dead; the gash ran deathly close to my heart, and went through some major blood vessels. I was out for half the day and they kept me strapped to a hospital bed until I was well enough to be put back in my cage.

I glowered silently at my chest and all of the scars it held, and got lost in the painful memories, the coldness, grim, and endlessly dark memories held right on my very own body.

Xxxxxx

I threw on a plain white shirt, put some sunscreen on my nose, and met with the rest of the flock in the living room. Scorch was dressed in a bathing suit as well, so I guess he was coming with us. I nodded silently to him, and stood next to Max, noticing a bathing suit strap coming out from under her shirt.

"Maaaax..." I warned. She was not going swimming, not until her cut was healed.

"Chill out, I'm not going to get them wet."

I looked doubtfully at her, and knew I would make sure of that.

"Everyone ready?" Iggy asked.

Everyone said yes, and we all headed out of the big tree entrance. I stopped outside, and our swimming group gathered together.

Max's POV

"Alright flock, up and away." I commanded. Iggy took off, then Nudge, followed by Gazzy and Angel. It was just Me, Fang, and Scorch. It just occurred to me; how was Scorch going to get there? He sure wasn't going to walk, that would take forever.

"Wait… how is Scorch-" I cut off with my mouth gaping open, Scorch was suddenly on fire blazing yellow, white, and orange. It was a spectacular sight. "Wow…" I gaped. Scorch leapt up in the air, and became a hurtling fireball, moving through the air like some kind of meteorite. He even had his own fire tail. "That's not something you see every day."

**Just review.**


	20. Good Times Can't Last Forever

**For the record, not entirely my fault that this was late. My editor took forever to edit this chapter, I sent it to her over a week ago. So don't get all mad at me. **

**Changing the tone, this chapter is pretty long… so yup. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 20: Good Times Don't Last Forever

The 7 of us were defiantly an odd sight; 4 clumsy birds wearing shoes and clothes, and an even bigger misshapen bird (Max and I), and a mini flaming meteorite whizzing past the weird crowd and doing loop-de-loops.

"Show-off," Max muttered in my arms.

"Tell me about it." I muttered. No offense to Max, but she was starting to get heavy, and my wings had to work twice as hard to keep us in the air. We were almost to the lake, and I slowly started ascending. It's always hard to land when you're carrying someone, and was extremely easy to do an impressive looking face plant, and land on your passenger.

Max and I were first to land. I came down as slow as possible, and once my feet touched the ground I began running as fast as I could. This was another good use to my fast speed. I managed to stop without tripping or landing on Max; so I guess it was a success. I set Max down gently, and she took a step back. "And you thought I wouldn't be able to carry you that whole way." I mocked.

"Yeah, yeah. Good job, I'm very impressed muscle man." Max said sarcastically. Me and Max sat down near the edge of the lake in the sun, leaning up against a rock. Gazzy dropped his shirt from 10 feet off the ground, and swooped back up, making a 20 foot cannon ball into the water, cackling like a maniac.

I gave him a thumbs-up when he resurfaced, still laughing insanely, coughing up water, trying not to drown. "Close your mouth next time, genius." I called out to him. The flock wasn't in the water yet; Iggy was pulling off his shirt, and making his way slowly towards the water, trying not to trip over something. Quite frankly, Iggy was a stick with abs, and he really hadn't changed much since he was 14.

Finally the entire flock was in their swim suits, the girls both wearing bikinis which frankly looked uncomfortably tight for their wing's sake. I'll never understand why girls put themselves through agony just to look "hot" or whatever. Sure, us guys worked out until we practically threw up, but there's a difference. On a random note: If Angel and Nudge are in bikinis, then Max must be…

"Stop drooling muscle man." Max laughed. "Aren't they a little young for you?"

I scowled at her, and again noticed that the strap around her neck must be one to a bikini (not that I would know); Max must have not been too pleased about that one.

"Are you wearing a bikini??" I asked her.

"Yes…" She answered slowly. "Why?"

I shook my head, and looked back out to the water and the kids playing. Iggy and Gazzy were fighting each other in the air; Iggy appeared to be winning. But I wasn't really paying attention to the boys fighting, all I could really think about was Max in that bikini.

"I swear, I don't think either of them are going to grow up." Max sighed, and leaned up against the rock.

"Huh… oh, yeah; I highly doubt it." I said, playing along with whatever she was saying. I was just too tired today; last night had been another 8 sleepless hours without Max. Tomorrow night she finally was allowed to sleep in a normal bed, so I guess tomorrow would be a good night's sleep.

**Xxx**

Max's POV

It was nice how I was finally outside again after the whole incident; to see the sun shining, allowing it to warm my face. The kids laughed and splashed in the background, fooling around like old times.

_**Max!**_

What? Is this Jeb or the mysterious voice? Must you bother me today? I finally have a day outside.

_**It's Jeb, and why are you outside?! I told you to stay inside!!**_

_You said today I could!_

_**I said no such thing!**_

Sure you did! Remember the '_Yes, the Itex spies are hundreds of miles away from you. You're safe for today.' Thing!?_

_**I didn't say that!**_

_Yes you did, I remember very clearly!_

_**When??**_

_I don't know, maybe an hour ago?_

_**That wasn't me. But that is beside the point, Itex Erasers are coming! Get you and your flock out of there!**_

_What?? But you said… _

_**Get out of there Max!**_

"Flock!" I yelled just loudly enough for them all to hear me. "Get out, NOW!"

"Max, what's going-"

"No time to explain, everyone out! We've got company." Angel, Nudge, and Iggy waded out of the water as fast as they could. Gazzy, who was in the air, flew over to me, and landed. Scorch came out from under the shade from the other side of the lake. They all gathered around, looking to me for instruction, even Fang. I had trained them to follow me no matter what, and it's times like this were their obedience came in handy.

"Into the trees." I commanded, we all ran as fast as we could into the shelter of the forest. We were all designed to be fast, so we made it there in a matter of seconds. I started whispering now, the erasers were too close for us to be noisy. "Flock, run to the safe house. We need to be quiet and ready."

Without waiting for any longer the flock took off running through the trees. Me and Fang were in the back, making sure to keep everyone in our sight. We ran near the river, knowing it would eventually take us to the safe house. I looked up and through the canopy of the trees, and what I saw horrified me. Erasers… at least 50 of them, flying over the mountains like some demon cloud, and gaining on us fast. I didn't know if they knew were we were, but I wasn't prepared to find out.

**Max! Turn around. There is a bunch of erasers by the entrance of the safe house!**

_AGGGH!! Where are we supposed to go?!_

_**Hide! Anywhere the flying erasers can't see you. You can out fly the erasers, so eventually you will need to get in the air.**_

_AGGGH!!  
_

"Flock, stop!" I hissed. Everyone stopped abruptly, almost smashing into each other. "Turn around, erasers by house." We all spun on our heel, and headed west, deeper into the forest.

We kept on running, and running, and running, to the point were we were starting to huff and puff. We ran past huge oak trees, stumbling over roots, past long grass and rocks. Eventually we reached a clearing, and when we looked up there were no erasers within view. That just made me more nervous.

We stopped for a quick second, deciding what to do. It was either up, and risking us getting seen too close to the crowd; or it was stay here, and getting attacked where we were vulnerable. I hated to leave the safe house, but it was time to go; we would come back sometime. I commanded the flock upwards, whispering to stay low. They nodded and Angel took off then Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy. Scorch was just going to attract attention; it's hard to miss a flying fireball. Scorch nodded, and miraculously knew what I was thinking.

"Fly east until you hit a small town, I'll contact you guys." He hissed. With that, he ran back towards the safe house, closer to the erasers. He was going to distract them, he could defiantly out fly them. If one so stupidly touched him, they would draw a shocking conclusion that fire might not be something you want to touch, especially in midair.

Fang made a motion as if to pick me up, but I stepped away. This was an emergency, if I opened up my wound, so be it. I'll get over it. Fang sighed and pushed me forwards. "Go," He said. I obeyed, and took off with a running start, just clearing the top of the tall oak tree.

I turned back my head back, and saw no erasers in the air. They had just disappeared; I looked forwards and saw all 4 flock members flying safely away. Suddenly, my body just jolted for a second. I whipped my head forwards, looking for whatever happened; but I saw nothing. Slowly my wings became heavy, until I just couldn't move them. _Crap…_

I started spiraling towards the earth, I must have been 40 feet off the ground; a deadly drop. I vaguely heard Fang call out my name weakly, before he started falling too. I just couldn't comprehend all of the colors and noises, everything seemed so slow. Something furry smacked into me, catching me from the death spiral. I heard a cruel laugh, and everything just went dark.

Xxxxx

Something uncomfortable was jabbing at my hip. I realized it was my hand, so I moved to a more comfortable position on my side. I shivered and felt for my warm bedcovers; I found none by touch, so I opened my eyes, and a horrifying scene appeared. I was in a cage, a concrete one with a medium sized cot in one corner. I wasn't alone though, Fang was in with me, still out, but moving slightly. I stood up shakily, and peered out of the bars in a northern direction. In front there was nothing but brick wall, but I sensed there were cages next to us, their occupants silent.

I went over to Fang and shook him awake. "Wha?" he mumbled, his eyes opened slowly. He blinked, and looked around; again and again he blinked rapidly.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I… I can't see. Everything's all blurry." He said groggily.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean I can barely tell that you're standing in front of me. Everything is all misty and disoriented." He said, feeling around with his hands as if he were blind. "Don't worry Max, I'm sure it's just so I won't be able to escape with my shadow ability."

I felt bad for him; he couldn't even see where he was. I quietly described the room and as much surroundings as I could see. "By the way, how do they always know who you are and what your ability is?" Fang pulled up his shirt, and showed me a painful looking tattoo on his upper right leg; you know, were your bone connects with your hips. I had never seen it because it was just below his pants line. Fang always seemed to be against wearing shorts in public if he could help it; probably something about not wanting to look gay.

"Owe… Does it hurt?" I asked. I looked closer at it, it was a sort of cross between a pointy sort of star, and two circles, below it was written 'special' and Fang's experiment number.

"Not anymore," He said emotionless.

"I'm guessing we are back in the school or something?" he sounded bored.

"Yeah."

"I knew I would get caught sooner or later, it was only a matter of time." Fang said, leaning up against the wall. "And it'll only be a matter of time until we escape."

I had a very high doubt that we were going to escape soon. Something about this just felt different; maybe it was because I hadn't been in the school for over 9 years. I just settled with a single nod, and sat down on the cot. The weirdest thing about looking at Fang right now was that his eyes were unfocussed. They always seemed to be focused and alert on something. At the moment his eyes were of no use to him, so why should he focus on anything?

A door whooshed open somewhere out of my field of vision. I heard several echoing footsteps making their way towards us, muttering as they walked. There were several disgruntled noises coming from the cages next to us at the noise. Me and Fang exchanged glances, waiting to see where they would stop; or in Fang's case, listening. It was no surprise that they stopped in front of our cage, an eraser opening taking out a set of keys.

The whitecoats looked at us in interest, mumbling about 'the original Angel Experiment'. They examined us like zoo exhibits, (to them, we were) the erasers stepped into the cage, and made a grab towards me. Fang stepped in front, snarling at them. One of the erasers sniggered and cuffed him hard on the shoulder, and three of them grabbed him. "What's wrong birdie? You don't want me touching your girl?" The one that hit him sneered.

"Hey! Don't damage it." The leader whitecoat snapped.

Fang insteped on one eraser's foot, a look of satisfaction. This angered the eraser, and it punched him hard on the back, temporarily knocking the wind out of him. The eraser looked satisfied at Fang's gasping breath. "What, your man can't take a hit?" The eraser snidely asked me. I took a step forwards, but one eraser held me back, thrusting my arms behind me.

"Cut it out." The whitecoat snapped again. "Get the girl."_ One _more eraser grabbed onto me, which frankly offended me.

"Oh, so because I'm a girl I only need two erasers to hold me back?" I asked snidely. The eraser cuffed my back half-heartedly. The whitecoat motioned for the erasers to bring us forward, so they shoved me in front of them, trudging along after the retreating whitecoats. Fang went in front of me, stumbling because:

1.) He couldn't see worth crap at the moment.

2.) The erasers were pushing him purposefully hard at random moments.

The erasers laughed each time Fang tripped, and broke into hysterics when he almost fell down, not able to pick himself up with his hands. Saying stuff like 'what's wrong birdie, can't see?" and 'having difficulty walking?' They roughly pulled him back up, practically dragging him. I didn't do anything to object, I knew it would just embarrass him.

"Stop fooling around with the bird, the more it's damaged the less it's worth." The head honcho finally demanded. We walked through empty white hallways, the acidic smells bringing back painful childhood memories.

My captors shoved me into a white room after the whitecoats, Fang was behind me. There was a mirror on one side of the room, and a few chairs and desks on the other. The whitecoats took their seats, 3 behind one desk. They pulled out some paper, and looked intently at the head whitecoat to begin. My captors shoved me in front of the mirror, and stood in front of the door, locking it. They pulled out a gun and made sure I saw it. Fang was pushed roughly towards me, and almost fell down; his erasers joined the others in front of the only exit. He straitened his shirt, sniggered at the erasers (the brown blobs) just to tick them off, and smiled creepily at the whitecoats (The white blobs.).

The whitecoats looked unsettled at Fang's expression, shifting in their seats uncomfortably; which is exactly what Fang wanted. The head whitecoat cleared his throat, and pulled out some notes. He stood on the podium about 5 yards away from us, and pulled out a little remote. On the side opposite to the entrance, there was a white screen, and a sort of projector that started up.

"You prepared a slide show?" I sniggered. The whitecoats just ignored me.

It showed pictures of us flying. And by pictures of us, I mean of me and Fang. They showed different angles, and zoomed in on our wings, capturing exactly how we flew and our wing movements.

"This is experiment 003456, also known as Max." The video started focusing on me and my fawn colored wings. It showed me unconscious in the school lying on the hospital bed. (By the way, wasn't creepy at all…) (Sarcasm. Note the sarcasm.) "She is roughly 24, actual birth date unknown." The tapes continued, showing me falling out of the sky. A black blur that was Fang came swooping down to catch me. "Wingspan: roughly 15 feet, we're doing actual measurement today." I sniggered at that, he would have a fun time trying to get me and Fang to cooperate with that one. "Height: unimportant." Lastly he showed me going into hyperdrive, until I was out of sight.

"This is experiment 003507, also known as…" The whitecoat peered closer to the paper, making sure what he was seeing was correct. "Fang." He showed pictures and videos of Fang catching me from the sky; rapid pictures of him sinking into the shadows. "Wingspan: roughly 15 feet." They showed Fang flying, his wings glinting purple from the sun, his hair whipping in the breeze; catching a glimpse at me, and quickly setting his gaze in front of him. They showed a picture of him flying away, a building blazing behind him. I was guessing it was the Itex building.

"Both experiments somewhat successful, except 003507 seems to be going corrupt." Fang smiled weirdly at the whitecoats again. They took a look at him, and exchanged glances with the head, looking uneasy again. "Too successful on 003507's part. Destroying 14 Itex plants single-handedly is not how powerful we aimed for it to be. However; we believe these mutants are mutating themselves. They have been getting powers that were never planned; we never even thought they were possible." He looked around at the crowd seriously, and the whitecoats looked at us, somehow differently then before.

"Today we're going to do a few measurements, and have a meeting afterwards." He shuffled through his notes, and looked over to us. "Nothing funny; 003507; we don't want to hurt you, but if we have to, we will." He warned Fang. Fang scowled at him, just daring for him to get closer. The erasers edged closer, ready to grab Fang if he decided to attack.

A whitecoat separated himself from the crowd, and said calmly "All we need is for you to put out your wings. No harm will be done to either of you if you cooperate; we have no intention to hurt either of you." That was a load of crap, why would they suddenly decide not to harm us? They never kept their promises. And to have them come up behind us, in our blind spot, 'measure' our relatively fragile wings, and have them do no harm to us; it seemed completely impossible. We weren't idiots.

And yet, I found myself slowly extending my right wing, focusing harshly on everyone's movements. Fang looked at me in shock, trying to find a way to put my wing back in without damaging it. (Harder then you think, our wings are _not_ flexible; bend it a certain way and it breaks pretty easily.) The crowd of whitecoats came forward cautiously, making sure their hands were within our view. They motioned for the erasers to back off, and they did, staying a couple yards away.

Fang made a movement as if to step in front of me. Instead, he hesitated, staying close to me, and glaring at all of the whitecoats with a piercing gaze. He too extended his wing slowly, keeping his eyes on the erasers in back of them.

One whitecoat slowly pulled out a measuring tape, and made his way towards me. Fang's eyes focused sharply on him, watching his every move. I wasn't worried about the whitecoats; they couldn't do any damage to us. What I was worried about was the erasers, still too close for comfort. The whitecoat deliberately made slow movements while measuring my wings. "7 feet, 2 inches; wingspan of 14 feet, 4 inches," He said. He walked to my side, and I saw him admiring my wings.

I gave him a look, and he stopped, sheepishly backing away. I tucked my wing back into a comfortable position. It was now Fang's turn; he looked more paranoid than I did. A different whitecoat came up and measured his wing, "7 feet, 7 inches; wingspan of 15 feet, 2 inches." The whitecoats scribbled that down on their papers, and gawked at the size of Fang's wing. Fang scowled at them, and quickly drew his wing in, making the whitecoats jump.

"That's all we needed of them today; erasers, take them to room 4," The head whitecoat said, not looking up from his recently taken notes. Two erasers brought my hands behind my back, and started marching me towards the door. Three erasers grabbed onto Fang, wrenched his arms behind his back, and shoved him towards the door. I don't know why they hated Fang so much, it was almost like they were being nice to me, and making everything miserable for Fang.

They brought Fang and I down a long hallway and past a series of doors. They finally stopped in front of one, scanning a card in something that beeped. The door clicked open, and they led us down a shorter hallway with sets of other doors. They marched us up to a door that had a little black 4 above it. The erasers took a set of keys, and unlocked the deadbolt, punched in a quick code, then scanned another card. Finally the door opened, and the erasers pushed us in a dark room, shutting the door with a slam, We heard all of the locks click automatically, trapping us inside; leaving us in the pitch dark room.

After failed attempts to crash open the door, we gave up, and turned around. I felt around for a light switch, and flicked it on. I held back a gasp at what I saw. The room had a sort of white carpet (cheap carpet; but still!) and light blue walls. There was a table with two chairs, a couch in okay shape, a smallish TV on top of a bookshelf, and a desk with a swivel chair. "What the h-" Fang trailed off.

"Well, this is… new." I managed.

There were two other doors leading from this room. Fang walked past our little 'sitting room' and opened the door cautiously, as if it would explode in his face.

"It's… a bathroom… I think." Fang said, the slightest hint of puzzlement.

"Seriously?" I asked, going to check for myself. It was true, it was a bathroom. It was pretty nice, complete with a shower and shampoo.

Fang opened the other door. "bedroom." He muttered. I went over and saw what he was talking about. It had a simple king bed with blue sheets, and a bedside table. The room was spacious and by far the nicest out of all the rooms; not because it was fancy, but because it was warm and comforting. The walls were the same color as the ones in my room in the E shaped house; our heaven after the hell of the school. I looked over to Fang and saw him in thought too.

I snapped him out of his trance. "What is all this for?" I referred to the luxury of what should have been a cage.

"Either they're plain crazy, or they're sucking up. Bet you it's the second."

"Why would they want to suck up to us?" I asked.

"They want us to have them on our good side, so maybe we'll cooperate. I'm sure they're tired of trying to fight us." Fang explained.

He walked out of the room, and sat down on the couch. I joined him, sighing. All we could do now is wait. There was no windows and the walls were rock solid. They obviously had stopped underestimating us, and had gotten serious. Faintly I heard someone walk down the hallway outside.

Our deadbolt unlocked, and a tall whitecoat stepped in. He was clean-shaven, had black hair, and looked surprisingly muscular under the white coat. "Hello Max and Fang," he said in a cool smooth voice, which strangely made me feel overpowered. He closed the door, and took a few steps closer to us. Fang stiffened at my side, sizing him up. "I'm Doctor Charlie Batchelder. We're going to get to know each other very well in the next couple months."

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**I like reviews...**

**-silence-**

**So... yeah.**

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	21. More Then My Uncle

Chapter 21: More Then My Uncle

**WHAT TIME IS IT?? **_**SUMMERTIME!**_** IT'S OUR VA-CAT-ION!! Haha, couldn't resist. (Don't kill me because I think High School Musical is funny. Please don't.)**

**Well, High school just began for me, and let me tell you, it's already hell. (If you're younger then me, good luck!) And for the record, waking up at 6:30 for cross country, going to lacrosse at 12:30, and soccer starting next week is not a very easy schedule to juggle. (Oh, and trying to get together with friends after everything is done.) God, physically draining. I hate going to bed at 9:00 during summer… :( Well, you don't have to listen to my woes of whimpyness (that doesn't make sense but I don't care), you may read the story. Sorry it's short.**

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Chapter 21: More Then My Uncle

_Our deadbolt unlocked, and a tall whitecoat stepped in. He was clean-shaven, had black hair, and looked surprisingly muscular under the white coat. "Hello Max and Fang," he said in a cool smooth voice, which strangely made me feel overpowered. He closed the door, and took a few steps closer to us. Fang stiffened at my side, sizing him up. "I'm Doctor Charlie Batchelder. We're going to get to know each other very well in the next couple months."_

I sat in shocked silence, _Batchelder? _It couldn't be, could it?

"Ah, yes. I believe you know my brother, Jeb." Charlie said professionally.

"You're… my uncle?" I just realized.

"I suppose I am." He said, shrugging casually. I looked down, disappointed. How many whitecoats could my family stand? We have two genetically mutated kids, and two whitecoats. What's wrong with that? (Sarcasm. Note sarcasm.)

**(A/N OMG!! I just realized something!! **_**Technically**_** Max's real name would be Maximum Batchelder…. Interesting name. Alright. I'm sure all of you already knew that… oh well, I'm slow. We will now continue the story!) **

"Well, as I'm sure you can tell, I am what you call a whitecoat. But I assure you, I'm very different from the rest of them." Charlie said sincerly. I raised my eyebrows in doubt, looking to Fang who mirrored my expression. "I truly am." He said, noticing our reaction.

"Just like Ann?" I pointed out.

"I understand why you don't trust me, nobody knows better than I. I don't expect you to ever trust me, but I hope you will." He paused his pacing, looking at both of us in turn. "I'm not going to attack you, you can sit down you know." I ignored this, still standing.

"Well then. I bought you both off of Itex." He stated, "They didn't really have much use for either of you, except they knew you would be quite valuable together. They know the relationship you two share, and it does help." He looked down at us, looking at our reaction. "And let me tell you, you two did not come cheap. 2 billion dollars, in fact; for the pair of you." My jaw went agape for a second. I was worth 1 billion dollars?

"I know, quite a lot. You guys were pretty valuable because of Max's hyper drive, and Fang's invisibility; makes you harder to catch." Charlie explained. He thought for a second, then added "of course there needs to be a steep price on the ability to rule the world." _Hmmmm, Day ja vu__._

"What do you want us for anyways?" I demanded.

"I don't need you for anything; it's really a question of if you want to help yourselves and other mutants." Charlie (my uncle) said.

This confused me, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying, Maximum, that I have no use of you for my own benefit. I bought you freedom, and I'm here to personally guide you." Charlie said.

"Why would you want to help us?" I asked suspiciously.

"Because, Max. What else is family for?" Charlie said. I doubted his family loyalty instantly. I sat down and rested my elbows on my thighs, and looked down at the ground. _Well, whoop de frickin do!__ Why wasn't he here when I was dieing inside the school?_

"My brother took care of you." I shot my gaze up to him. How the hell did he answer my thoughts? "Look, the point is that you never needed me earlier in your life. Now is when my assistance will be of help to you."

"And why is that?" Fang asked before I could.

"Because, I'm a very powerful man. I've got more money then you could dream of; and with money, comes power. I can be of assistance to you because I offer you protection in a different sense."

"But what do you-"

"Let me finish," Charlie said to Fang because of his interruption. "What I want you to do is to blow your cover." Charlie stated quickly. We were all silent for a few awkward moments.

"Well, I don't think you get it. We blow our cover, then we get put in a zoo someplace and aren't any better off!" I said.

"That's when I come in. I bought you off of Itex, which makes you my property. They can't put you in a zoo unless they ask me, or buy you off of me."

"So you expect us to trust you with our entire life when I only just met you 2 minutes ago?" I clarified.

He only nodded, waiting for our response. "Ta-yeah. You obviously don't know me very well. I don't care if you're my uncle, you've ignored me my entire life."

"I expected that. I'll leave you two to explore your new home." Charlie said, not looking at all discouraged, "But seriously, think about it. Just press this button when you're ready to talk." Charlie motioned to a little white button in the corner of the room that I hadn't seen. He closed the door, the locks clicked automatically, and his solitary footsteps made their way down the hall.

Xxxx

According to the clock inside our main room, it was 7:00 when we were given dinner. Charlie was back with huge trays of food, filling the entire room with its tempting aroma. I could smell plenty of red meat (Fang's favorite) and plenty of other kinds of mouthwatering food. "Eat." Charlie said, pushing the plate closer to us, "You guys haven't eaten anything for much too long."

"I've gone days without food. I can go one without it." I said, not looking at him or the food. The truth was that I had never really been food deprived for 8 years unless I was too depressed to eat. Fang was expressionless to someone who didn't know him, but I could see the temptation. Why were we being stubborn? Because, they could be some drug inside the f-ing stuff that could kill us.

"Max, I did not drug any of it. It's perfectly safe to eat." Charlie said, pushing it even closer. He sighed, seeing that we were not going to eat it just because of his assurances. and pulled the plate towards him. "See," he took a small bite of all the food. I looked at him, waiting for him to collapse or pass out or something. Nothing appeared to be happening, but still, I waited.

Charlie sighed, "I'm not going to pass out. I'll come back in 15 minutes to prove that I'm still alive; but seriously, your food is getting cold." He stood up from his chair, and walked out the door.

Xxx

Of course, 15 minutes later he came back, looking completely fine. Once he was gone, I cautiously put a small amount of food in my mouth. Of course, the food was delicious (even though it was cold). I lost patience, and started shoving the stuff down. Fang copied me. We looked like two sharks in a feeding frenzy.

Xxx

After a weird day, we were both wiped, and thought that we could use some sleep. Fang took first watch while I slept for a while. Much too soon, Fang had woken me up, and I went on watch. During the entire time we heard nothing but each others breathing and snoring. Fang woke up on his own, and offered to take watch again. I didn't really need anymore sleep, I could get some during the day. He nodded, and went back to sleep. Altogether, he probably got 4 hours, and I got 4 hours too. It's a start.

Xxx

Once we were both up, we came out and saw breakfast already waiting for us, smelling delicious of course. This scared me because I had never heard anything come inside our little dorm last night, and food doesn't just fly in the room on its own. The walls to our bedroom must have been soundproof; not really a comforting thought knowing that anything could sneak into our bedroom while we were sleeping.

**Hello Max.**

I groaned inwardly, hoping the voice could hear that. _I don't need your fortune cookie crap today, thank you very much._

_**Listen to your uncle. You can trust him. **_

_What? Why should I? But _the voice was already gone. I sighed out loud, and went to go eat our food.

"God, why does it have to be so good?" Fang moaned as he stuffed his face with pancakes.

"I know." I moaned back.

We ate in silence after that, savoring each bite. Once our plates were completely cleared, I sat back in my chair, slouching so three quarters of my legs were off; Fang copied me.

"So," Fang said quietly, "Do you really think that guy is your uncle? You don't really resemble him at all."

"You know, I never know what to think anymore." I sighed, looking at the corner of our table. "The voice says that I should trust 'my uncle.'"

"Hm." Fang sighed lazily. I could tell he was thinking deeply about who knows what. I played around with the hem of my shirt, thinking about the last time I had seen Fang flying. I imagined his hair whipping in the breeze, his face showing the power and majesty he felt, light reflecting off of his fully-grown wings. In the real world Fang straightened up a little, snapping me out of my little fantasy, and he turned his head towards the door. "Shh, I think he's coming."

"I wasn't even talking." I smiled and chuffed him on the shoulder playfully.

"Yeah, whatever." Fang waved his hand, smiling slightly to keep the mood light.

I could hear the familiar footsteps making their way down the hallway, and the set of locks getting opened. I wonder why he always comes in alone without his eraser goons to keep him protected.

"Well, you two seem a lot less tense than you did yesterday." Charlie said, smiling in greeting as if he had known us forever. "You guys like the breakfast?" He asked. I guessed that that was a rhetorical question; based on the fact that it was obvious we liked pretty much any food. Charlie ignored his previous question, and changed the mood to be more serious. "Have you guys thought about it?" We both knew what he was talking about.

I nodded. "And?" Charlie prodded.

I just sat there, refusing to answer; Charlie waited patiently. To my surprise, Fang answered "We're still not sure."

"Well I understand that, but we don't have forever. Every day infants are mutated in a way that is not natural, and their lives are ruined before they even get a chance." He looked at me as if all of this were my fault.

I glared at him; as if I didn't already know that, I don't need to be reminded all the time. A surge of fury went through my entire body. This was a whitecoat and he was being such a hypocrite. I just lost it, and found myself furious.

"Seriously! I don't get why you're even bothering with us!" I stormed, throwing my arms up into the air. "You keep us hostage, but put us in a nice room; You claim to be my uncle, but you've ignored me my entire life!"

"I'm bothering, Maximum, because for one, I am your uncle." He stated, starting to pace after I had stopped. He looked at me very hard, obviously frustrated; Fang was standing beside me watching his every move. "I'm bothering, because I need to. I can't just leave you. I'm your uncle; your guardian-" He paused for a while, looking solemnly at my face, taking in my expression. He took a step forwards, and looked deeply into my eyes **(A/N NOT in that way)**, his strangely becoming unfocused.

**_And also the small voice in your head that inexplicably leads you in the right direction every time._**

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Yeah, I'm not so good at suprises. Dont know when the next chapter will be out...


	22. The Gaps in Scorch's Past

**First off, you're all probably amazed I haven't died in some tragic accident because of how long it took me to update, and for that I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so… sorry! The true reason why this took forever is lack of communication between my editor and me. Resulting in 6 weeks (probably more) of this story sitting in K's email and her not finding the time to edit it. I kept telling myself, oh she'll probably finish it soon, I've waited this long I might as well wait a few more days to get it fixed… which basically is my story. Had I known she was that busy I would have finished this thing on my own, but this is the last 3 chapters, and feedback from her is insanely important at this time. Personally, I suggest you wait for the 24****th**** chapter to come out, which is the last one, that way you can just finish the story in peace without having to wait… but whatever you wanna do.**

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Chapter 22: The Gaps in Scorches Past

"_Seriously! I don't get why you're even bothering with us!" I stormed, throwing my arms up into the air. "You keep us hostage, but put us in a nice room; You claim to be my uncle, but you've ignored me my entire life!"_

"_I'm bothering, Maximum, because for one, I am your uncle." He stated, starting to pace after I had stopped. He looked at me very hard, obviously frustrated; Fang was standing beside me watching his every move. "I'm bothering, because I need to. I can't just leave you. I'm your uncle; your guardian-" He paused for a while, looking solemnly at my face, taking in my expression. He took a step forwards, and looked deeply into my eyes __**(A/N NOT in that way)**__, his strangely becoming unfocused._

_**And also the small voice in your head that inexplicably leads you in the right direction every time.**_

_**xxx**_

_Alright, pardon my French__… but WTF?!_

_**I knew this would come as a shock to you, so take your time to recover.**_

I looked up to Charlie; no, my uncle; no, the voice. He was the voice? How could it be??

_How? How did you… and I… and... and…what??_

"I'm sorry. Did I miss something?" Fang asked, looking at Charlie and then me. I ignored him.

_**Max. I know that Jeb never told you that he had a brother, but the truth is that he chose me as your godfather.**_

_Jeb sold me as an experiment and he also assigned me a godfather?_

_**Jeb is a complicated man.**_

"Alright, you two are leaving me out of something." Fang said, looking really annoyed.

"Charlie is the voice. Glad I could fill you in." I said quickly.

"What?" Fang sputtered. "But I thought Jeb was the voice!"

"Well, I got two voices in my head! It's a party now!"

"Max, the role I take as your godfather is different than the traditional relation." Charlie came over to me

"And he's your godfather! Whaddaya know?" Fang exclaimed, looking a little crazed. "Should I know about anything else?"

"Oh, did I tell you that Nudge is pregnant?" I said quickly, taking advantage of his fragile state. I took in his expression, and quickly found that he didn't realize I was kidding. "Kidding!" I said, eyes wide. Fang looked like he was going to have a stroke.

I quickly forgot about him when I looked at Charlie again. "How can you even do that thing in my head?" I asked.

"You have a communication device in your brain. It's literally connected to your nerves and I can hear your thought process when I turn mine on, as well as Jeb."

"Why can't I turn mine off?" I asked, getting angry.

"It wasn't designed that way." Charlie said as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"Well I'm sorry!" I said sarcastically, "I didn't even know that was physically possible!"

"You were kidding, right?" Fang gasped.

"Yes, Fang. It was a joke." I said impatiently.

Fang let out his breath that he had been holding in. He uncharacteristically clutched his heart, and breathed heavy trying to calm himself down. _Haha, Fang showing emotion… weird._

"Everybody lets just calm down now." Charlie said soothingly, taking a purposefully loud breath. "No need to get all hyped up."

"This is the perfect time to get 'all hyped up'!" I argued.

"See, you just add to the issue and keep the conflict going." Charlie started rambling like he was my dad.

"Ok, great Confucius. You're the voice in my head, you're my uncle, you purposefully make me get captured by the erasers so you can buy us off of them-" I used my fingers and summoned up the weird happenings.

"I know you're confused. Just let me explain."

"You give me advice but you never tell me who you are and don't answer the stupid questions I need answered,"

"Max, seriously-"

"You give us a humongo luxurious room,"

"Max, just-"

"You never bothered to meet me in person,"

"Max, JUST SHUT UP!" Charlie cracked, dropping his usually professional manner. I stopped, looking over at him, somewhat shocked. He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look," He looked up at me. "I'll tell you what's going on, right here, right now… but you need to not interrupt me, alright?"

I nodded, and said yes. Fang stopped having a heart attack, and appeared relatively calm… but not in a Fang way.

"First of which is, the school had no use for you in a mission. They wanted your DNA…"

"You said they didn't have a use for us!" I blamed.

"I lied." Charlie said simply. "They, scientists I mean, wanted to create another generation, your kind. They hoped that your child would be easier to control. They wanted to see what it would be like to have a mutant born… naturally. You and Fang…"

Fang and I exchanged extremely embarrassed glances. I looked down and had my right hand rub my left arm. Fang fidgeted and scuffed his foot. To have us make a child would require… well, you know how babies are made.

Charlie continued after the short silence, oblivious to the embarrassment. "Anyways, they figured you guys would be… unwilling to consume a baby the natural way." Again, more awkward time…

"So they decided to clone you guys and have them mate."

_Oh, that's waaaaay better! God… so sick. Too much information…_

"So, they took some of your hair when you first came here, while you were asleep… and then they had no use for you. I came and said I was interested in buying you. After some thinking, the scientists agreed on 2 billion dollars for the pair of you. And, here you are."

I blinked, not really knowing what to say. Fang was silent as well, he appeared to be deep in thought.

Fang's POV

The scientists already had my DNA. They stole it the same day I found Max. I got away from the school and fled; I didn't know where I was going to go, but I was tired of being captive. I did get out of the building, but I also was followed by a huge pack of flying erasers. Yeah. Bad situation. The erasers were probably ordered to get my DNA, then kill me.

_**Flashback**_

I couldn't fly much longer, each flap was painful and drained that much more of my limited energy; I was tired, hungry, and I was too weak. My vision kept on blacking out, and my ears started ringing. But I kept on going, my feeble and damaged wings trying to keep me aloft in the air. Behind me at least 40 erasers pursued, gaining on me. I knew I was covered in cuts and bruises, my eyes barely able to stay open. If I sank into the shadows, the erasers would wait for me to leave. I would have to come out very soon or die of starvation. I was screwed.

I kept on flapping my wings, coming closer to the coast. The erasers were yards away from me. And I was scared, I knew I was going to die. I would never see Max and the flock ever again. _I'm sorry Max, I'm sorry flock. _I managed to pray silently in my preoccupied head. A tear ran down my face, blown quickly away by the breeze. I would never return, the flock would never know how terribly sorry I was to leave them. I tried to stop crying, it was a sign of weakness, but I couldn't. The eraser had caught up and grabbed onto my shirt, chocking me from the sudden decrease in speed; he tore out a couple of my hairs, stuffing them into a bottle that hung around his neck.

"Your kids'll be more helpful than you." The eraser snarled, and kicked my right wing. My wing, I guess you could call it, stalled. I was too weak fly anymore, anyways. I spiraled towards the earth, strait towards a beach, and I couldn't do anything about it. I knew this drop would kill me, nobody could fall this far and live. Exhaustion came kicking in; Darkness was closing in on me and I was barely aware on what was going on. Finally I couldn't see anymore. I was vaguely aware of my contact with the ground, a sickening noise coming from my arm which landed first. My head made contact with the ground next, and everything went black and silent.

_**End of flashback.**_

Who would have known that I would wake up to having a long lost Max dabbing at the cuts on my forehead? The whitecoats had me for so long that they had kind of gotten tired of me. There were bigger and better experiments to use. I was outdated. I should have known that they wanted to make a clone of me; I didn't understand how they would make a kid from my DNA, that's not how it works. I get it now.

Still, the whitecoats confuse me… I'll never under stand them.

Max's POV

I knew what Charlie wanted me to meet the US congress and expose our existence. I guess I could trust him, after all, he was the voice that had saved my butt numerous times.

"So what do you guys say, do you want to make the speech?"

What the hell? There was that small chance that he was being completely honest with us, and it would solve everything. There's no chance unless you take one, so I guess I'll take it. "Yes."

Fang to my surprise, said yes as well.

It was decided then.

"Oh, and Max," Charlie said heading out of the door. There are a few people that want to see you both. And in came our flock including Scorch.

I was toppled on by Nudge and Angel, who were crying and looked insanely happy and relieved at the same time. "Max, I'm sorry! We were all getting away and we just turned around and you weren't there! We didn't know where you and the erasers went, and we were scared; and I'm just so sorry!" Nudge blubbered while squeezing my guts out.

Gazzy and Iggy said hi to Fang, and they did that little male greeting thingy. **(A/N Does it look like I'm a guy who knows what it's called??)**

Anyways, it was all emotional with us girls, and the guys remained calm because they were too cool for that. Scorch remained especially quiet in the backround.

Scorch's POV

I was never bad, never wanted to hurt anyone. It was a moment of weakness when I decided to play along with the erasers. They would have killed me if I didn't. I was just too much of a coward.

But I was never evil. Just scared.

_**Narrative flashback**_

The school used torturous methods to make me strong, to figure out my capabilities. When Fang was separated from me, my life went totally downhill. I was put in a scary chamber that was dark and quiet. I felt like I was floating, and I didn't have to use any muscles to hold myself up, I never got hungry. I started going insane, forgetting were and who I was. After a while, I didn't think at all. I was just there.

After what felt like a long time, probably a couple months, I was taken out. Everything freaked me out; the noises, the reawakened senses… after months of feeling nothing, it just overwhelmed me to be reintroduced so quickly. I couldn't think straight. It was pure torture for hours.

Finally, I could think straight, I knew who I was… my name was Conner… but that was all I was sure of. I didn't know if I had lived in the white place for my entire existence, or if it was new. There were things I just knew, such as colors, but I didn't remember where I learned this.

Things with many teeth and fur kept on coming by to feed me. The food was bitter and unflavorful, but it kept me alive. Finally, a man came in with a white coat. He called me Scorch and demanded me to stand up. I obeyed without thinking.

The furry things grabbed onto me, and led me down a long white room with many other people. They shoved me into a smaller room which had glass on one side. They closed the door and the whitecoat watched me. I turned around and noticed a big white circle and a smaller red circle in the middle of it. I was reminded of a word called target. The whitecoat motioned to it. I understood quickly what he wanted me to do. I lit my finger with fire, and shot at it. A gaping hole shown through into another room. A couple very shocked white coats peered through the hole I had made. The whitecoat that had led me there looked gleeful, probably at my destruction.

He told the furry things, erasers? To take me back to my room. He said that I would be useful in the army of erasers. Words seemed to be coming to me quicker; I remembered more colors and what certain objects were called, but I still found no need to disobey the whitecoats.

For 2 years I continued doing these tests and I learned how to fight. They said that someday I would be in an army with other powerful mutants, and we would punish the foolish rebels.

One day after a sparring with another mutant, I was led back to my room as usual. As my erasers were guiding me down the hall, I saw a big group of erasers struggling to control a blindfolded mutant. I was shocked that someone would disobey the erasers, his superiors. This mutant had black hair and was very tall. He seemed familiar. He was punching as many erasers as he could reach, but it was difficult because he could not see. The erasers were struggling to keep his hands behind his back. I saw that they lost control, and the dark boy tore off his blindfold. I caught a quick glimpse at his face, and it had a dramatic affect on me.

Memories became rushing back to me, things I didn't know I had experienced. I saw myself crying as a very young child, the whitecoats stopping my feeble movements and injecting me with something. I saw myself as a toddler running away from erasers crying and trying to fight them off, a deep pain came at my side as the eraser slashed at me. I saw myself as a child, weeping in a dog crate, looking over at the beautiful dead girl I had made friends with, laying silently across from me. Images of pain coursed through my body, years of suffering memories rushing back to me. Memories that had been buried in my conscious, and were finally resurfacing.

I saw myself as a teenager, the whitecoats trying to keep me down as they injected me with many different chemicals. I felt a stinging throughout my entire blood stream, my body becoming warmer and warmer as they dumped me back into my cage. I tried to cope with the pain, and found that rolling on my back helped somewhat. I heard another mutant being dumped into the cage across from me. The same mutant that was struggling with those erasers. I knew that boy, his name was… Fang. I made friends with Fang, I remember him teaching me how to trust someone. Fang was my best buddy, my only buddy. I remembered having free-will, struggling against the erasers, fighting against the more powerful. Trying to become free.

That was the day that my mind was given back to me. I now knew that I didn't have to obey my superiors, I could be free if I could escape. That was my number one goal after that day, to escape, and to take Fang with me.

That would be the best day of my life.

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**Review if your not too pissed at me. New poll on my profile, check it out. I finished the story, It just needs to get through K… I just hope that won't take too long.**

**On another note, I NEED A BETA-READER eventually. I'm writing a new story for Twilight. What I want to happen in Breaking Dawn. I'm thinking about names, and Forever Young might become the title. This time around, I learned to have a basic story structure because I figured out that last minute stuff doesn't pull together well. (The Way Things Are Supposed To Be is living proof) So anyways, if anyone's interested, PM me. I'm going to take some time to get this story really going so I might not have very much to give you for awhile. I'll send you the first chapter if you want to take a look at the story before you think about being my beta-reader. This story will be kinda more serious, I'm going to keep everyone in character as best as I can. PM ME, IF YOU EXPRESS INTEREST AND BACK OUT; I'M NOT GOING TO BITE YOUR HEAD OFF. IM NOT HOLDING YOU TO ****ANYTHING!! **

… **K im rambling now… just review pweeeease.**


	23. Busting out the News

Chapter 23: Busting out the News

Max's POV

Once all of the flock had calmed down enough, Iggy asked me a question.

"So Max, what crazy things have you and your uncle planned now?" Iggy asked.

"I'm going to blow the news of mutants all over the US." A statement I never thought I would say.

xxx

"Oh my god… I think I'm going to barf." I moaned, clutching at my stomach.

"You'll be fine, I'm right there next to you." Fang said, not looking at all calm himself. He was nervous and jumpy; exposing himself to government was defiantly not something you could do calmly.

I clutched the speech in my hand, about 4 pages in length. I was shaking and sweating on my new clean top. Charlie had wanted me to wear a dress, but I refused to. It's a dress for crying out loud!

Fang was wearing a plain black top, big and baggy so his wings wouldn't show and government wouldn't stare. Charlie also wanted Fang to wear dress shoes, dress pants, and a dress shirt. That argument didn't last long.

"I never imaged we would ever do this," Iggy mumbled, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt and sweating as well. For once Nudge was silent; she was freaking too. The entire flock was with me on this one.

I would make speech in front of congress, and the entire flock would present themselves. We would have to show our wings as proof to them. After the meeting, there would be some doctors examining us due to human curiosity. The news article tomorrow would have to include our genetics and such.

Jeb and Charlie's speech was almost over; they were talking about the science behind our mutation. "I would like to now invite Max and her flock to come on stage." Me and the flock took a deep breath, and left the backstage. We all tried to smile, but we were too nervous to make it look convincing.

Charlie and Jeb walked off stage, as we went on; Charlie put his hand on my shoulder and said with the voice: _**Knock 'em dead sweetie.**_

_I'll try…_

"Hello everyone." I said, not knowing who to address, "My name is Maximum Ride, and this is my family. We are genetically altered avian highbreds."

**One Chapter left... enjoy it. **


	24. Epologue

Chapter 24: Epilogue

**2 years later…**

Finally, it was all done. Not completely away, but good enough.

All mutants had the option to have their offending DNA ripped from every cell in their body (sounds pretty damn painful), or they could stay the same. Most chose the second one. Why change who they really are? With the help of my speech, government had put a stop to all of the human mutations, saying it was not humane, and unconstitutional to human rights.

The entire world knew about mutants, so no more hiding. Sure, the freaky stalker people that want to see you wings gets a little old, but hey; how much better could this whole thing get?

The government set up a Mutant protection program, giving all mutants a home and money. All whitecoats were brought to court, most put in jail for a lifetime. There was some new amendment that went into the bill of rights, saying that human mutation was against the law, and anyone who broke it would face a lifetime in jail.

Charlie (Good ol voice in my head) had gone home to live with his wife, Karen; and his kid, Ashley. Charlie, his family, and his brother visited us periodically to check up on us all.

Mandy had grown to be head of the Mutant Protection Program, calling all of the major shots. Jack preferred to be out of the limelight, and was head of only the medical care portion of the program. He taught many new people how to be doctors (including our very own Scorch), many becoming very successful surgeons, but none as good as the man himself.

The flock, well, we settled down; and permanently this time. Government had given us as much money as we needed, as long as we promised not to use our powers against the US. Like we had some intention of doing that. Again, we chose southern California, you just can't beat those beaches. Our house was, to say the least, frickin awesome, built specially for us flying people; so big that we could fly in the main entrance. We lived on top of a cliff that had a breathtaking view of the beach, and we could always hear those waves 24/7. The sound became a comfort to me; I don't think I could sleep without it.

Nudge and Iggy had gotten married, keeping the wedding small and only the flock was invited. They lived, I guess you could say, happily ever after.

Gazzy had found an avian like ourselves, a girl named Clarissa. She was one of the nicest girls you would ever meet in your lifetime. Their relationship was pretty serious, and I was expecting then to announce their engagement very soon. It was love at first sight, and they had been together since about 1 week after my ever-so-convincing speech.

Angel, well, not much had changed for her. I guess only time would tell if she would ever meet someone special.

Fang and I tied the knot as well, but there was still that sense of best friend between us, just a few steps above it. We still fight of course, but nothing ever would break us apart.

And here I am, almost 11 years after Fang had left; sitting on the bench that Fang had proposed to me on. It had a view of the mighty ocean, the waves rippling gently today. Gazzy and Clarissa were screwing around in the sky above the sea, Clarissa giggling while Gazzy dive-bombed her, missing each time by inches. Iggy and Nudge were somewhere on the north side of the house, probably laying in the grass looking up into the blue sky. I pair of hands went over my eyes, and I knew immediately who it was because of the familiar golden ring. I smiled gently, "Hey babe." I greeted him.

"Awe, you always know." Fang sighed, sitting down next to me and pressing his lips to my forehead gently.

"You should try not wearing our wedding ring." I whispered, closing my eyes while his lips were still pressed to my head.

"Ahh, didn't think about that." He sighed peacefully.

"You never think anymore." I teased him lightly.

"Hey, I've do enough thinking in my lifetime," He said mildly, brushing my wavy hair behind my shoulders. I looked at my perfect man in front of me, and smiled.

"You're happy today," Fang commented, pressing his lips on my jawbone and rubbed the length of it.

"It's a beautiful day." I sighed, enjoying his closeness.

"That it is." Fang said quietly, his voice muffled by my jaw. "You know what I was thinking?" He asked after a moment.

"What?" I asked.

"We haven't flown together in a long time. We should do it before you can't." He pulled me up from the bench by my hand.

I nodded, and smiled up at him. He put his arm around my waist, and guided me along the cliff. I enjoyed the scenery; Gazzy and Clarissa playing around in the distance, seagulls calling, and the sound of the waves crashing below. Fang stopped me, and faced me in front of him. He smiled and looked down at my stomach which seemed to be growing increasingly big every day.

"Only 3 more months." Fang reminded me, placing his hand gently onto my stomach and little baby Remi began kicking. He smiled at the movement just below my skin.

"I know," I smiled, looking down at his hand on my stomach. "I know." I repeated, more quietly this time.

Who knew that such a little thing could make such a big difference in my life? She wasn't even born yet, but I already knew that she would be far more beautiful then me; she had Fang's genes in her. My life could never be any better then it was right now. In 3 months I would be the mother to a beautiful baby daughter, and I was married to the most handsome man in the world. My world was shining brightly, and nothing would ever change that. Fang said this was just an unexpected, twisted, and miraculous turn of events that changed his dark world beautifully bright. But me, well I believe it should have been like this since the day we kissed in the cave. The way things were always to supposed to be, finally, finally came true.

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**Yup, that's the end. Kinda thought it would never end. FINALLY IT'S DONE!! Now I've got bigger and better things to write for. Might try my hand at fictionpress… might make something for twilight (I think I'm best with MR because it requires no high vocab level and shortened sentences. Which I've mastered. GO BAD GRAMMER!!) . Sequel to this story is probably not going to happen. **

**This story was kind of a learning experience for me, and I really appreciate the support. 150 reviews may not be much for a story this size, but you guys kept me writing. I think I'm going to continue writing… but not as much. I've kinda broken out of my nerd shell and I'm kinda getting a life. Anyways, got zip time on my hands cept for Saturday which I mostly spend doing something highschool sports related. **

**Check my profile for possible story titles and stuff. Nothing is going to come out soon because I don't want to have you guys waiting forever for an update anymore. That and it gives me time to make sure I know where the hell the story is going before I go right ahead and shoot off. **

**You guys are pretty cool for sticking with a newbie like me. Thanks for that. : ) Stay cool guys. **

**See you around… or not.**

**-PopItLikeAPopTart**


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